Blue Force Terran
by Survivor243
Summary: I decided that there wasn't enough Terran Love going around, so I made my own. Graphic violence, peril, death, language. Rated M.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_…_

_Location: [ERROR] Unknown_

_Time: Daylight 28__th__HR 16 MIN 43 SEC_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran _

_5 SCVs_

_10 Marines_

_1 Command Center: [ERROR] Offline_

_1 Refinery: [ERROR] Inactive_

_4 Depots _

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 300_

_Gas: 100_

_Organic Mass: 50_

_Supply Limit: 16/50_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level 1_

_Status: None_

_Abilities: [ERROR] Insufficient data…_

_Energy: None_

_Allies: None_

_…_

_Current Objectives: [ERROR] Tutorial Phase One Required…Initiating Tutorial._

That was nice to know I guess, okay having a computer inside your head that updates you with need-to-know information can be pretty nifty, if not a little disorienting the first couple of times it happens, but handy.

Alright, time to wake up.

The interior of the Command Center Headquarters Commander Quarters (or just my room) was the same since I had passed out earlier, not rally paying much attention to the fact that micro computers were being injected into my brain to further augment my capabilities in order for me to command the highly advanced tech around here.

Still wearing the same blue jumpsuit that had a small nametag patch on the left side of my chest, some kind of serial barcode instead of regular letters, but anyway I got out of bed and started putting the rest of my clothes on. My boots, my pistol belt and the wrist bracelet I pretty much have to wear 24/7 when I am not in this room so I can interface with other suits, vehicles, building functions and such, without no magic can happen aside from the basic commands from either a terminal or pre-programed orders.

Breakfast was another really nasty can of rehydrated whale snot and three bottles of water before I took the elevator down to the Suit Bay, fancy way of saying of where I could climb into my own personal suit of armor, which was as simple was placing my hands and feet inside of some circles and initiating the command via mental connection. After that it was the suit closing around me with lots of loud whirring, clicking, hissing and a final beep as I was encased in darkness for all of two seconds before everything around me came to life. The helmet heads-up display (HUD) was the first to light up as a one dimensional readout of the suit was displayed, each section changing from red, orange, yellow and green until the whole thing became a light blue, indicating a 100% suit integrity test. With the suit display finished, next was a purple bar along the bottom edge of the HUD underneath the status display of the suit, which was located in the lower left corner of my screen, this was the suit's energy display meter.

_Terran Commander Level One_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/2000_

_Abilities: Power Armor Sprint=10 meter range 15 Energy cost, Power Armor Hand Grenade=1 HE Grenade 15 Energy cost_

_Energy: 50/50: Recharge rate 5 points every 1 minute_

_Allies: None_

Everything checked out, it was strange wearing a suit of power armor, operating was different too because your hands are actually a foot away from the actual hands on the suit, but practice makes perfect. My rifle was sitting on the rack next to the suit, one mag loaded and another four of them stashed on my belt, really need to work on some kind of miniature fabricator built into each suit to supply a larger amount of ammunition compared to what can fit on the limited space of the belt because I could throw grenades that were generated from the suit's existing fabricators, but at great cost of energy.

Now fully suited and armed, I stomped across the Suit Bay to the exit and waited for the door to unlock.

The suns were just peeking over the far horizon when I stepped outside, finding several other units waiting for me, well they were actually deactivated if the scanner built into my visor was anything to go by, but first I had to do the Tutorial.

A prompt screen appeared in front of my face and I blinked at the Yes option.

_…_

_Greeting Commander, this is a brief overview of the capabilities of the Blue Terran Force at current level [ONE] that can be viewed at any time for your convenience, please standby for the SCV Operations Tutorial video._

_…_

If it wasn't for the fact that this was eons ahead of what I was used to, I could almost swear that I was stuck with dial up.

_…_

_SCV Operations Guide_

_The SCV is an all environment construction resource gathering and staple repair unit of the Blue Force Terran that has several functions vital to any prospering base of operations. Upon command, any SCV can be activated to build any available structure at current level [ONE] or gather resources, other commands include repair and dismantle._

_Select 1 SCV at this time._

_…_

Because I lacked a mouse cursor, I turned and looked at the nearest SCV just sitting there, waiting until the scanner identified that it was in fact an SCV and it was one under my command, allowing a command queue to open, the only one I could select obviously was Gather.

_…_

_For now the operator shall learn how to command SCVs to harvest mineral nodes, simply command a SCV to Gather and then select a nearby Mineral Node. Doing so will cause the SCV to automatically retrieve minerals from this location and return them to the Command Center or Collection Station [ERROR] no Collection Station found at this time, for processing, do so now at this time._

_…_

There were a couple of mineral nodes just off to the side of the Command Center, the closest one became highlighted after I stared at it for ten seconds, because I still had the SCV from earlier selected with the Gather option, the command issue Gather Minerals appeared. I blinked at the Yes prompt and turned to watch the SCV as it powered on, servos whirring to life as it moved over to the mineral node and began cutting off chunks bigger than my head. It did this for about a minute before it turned around with both arms full of minerals and drove over to the Command Center, where it deposited that load of minerals into a chute on the side, the minerals indicator on the top portion of my HUD going up ten points, not bad.

_…_

_All SCVs are equipped to harvest a wide variety of minerals and gases, select another SCV and then select the Refinery._

_…_

Doing the same thing I did before, I selected another SCV just sitting there and then turned to look at the Refinery sitting just a little bit farther away from the Command center and watched at the little SCV was able to hover over there, drive inside for forty-five seconds and exit the Refinery with a canister the size of a fifty-five gallon barrel that had a light green tint to it. Once it reached the side of the Command Center just like the first one did, it placed the canister into a slot and grabbed another canister that was just sitting there before turning around and heading back to the Refinery for another pickup.

_…_

_At current level [ONE] any SCV is capable of building [Supply Depots] select an SCV and open the Build Menu, placing the location of another Depot near one of the existing structures for now._

_…_

Alright, now a new command queue was available, Build obviously and the only thing I could build was unsurprisingly a Depot, which I placed next to the other four for now with help from a holographic outline of how big one of these things were and where I could place it, again handy feature. A third SCV powered up and went over to where I ordered the building of a Depot, first digging a small hole to begin the foundation before carrying a pile of construction materials from the Command Center and started building.

Something else also happened as well, a progress bar appeared over the construction site whenever I looked directly at it, listing off three pieces of information, namely the type of structure being built, how many SCVs were working on it and how long until it was completed, twenty-nine minutes it seemed.

_…_

_While the Supply Depot is under construction, select another SCV and order it to harvest minerals and then select the remaining SCV and order it to collect gas._

_…_

Feeling more than just a little stupid at obeying such a stupid command, I did just that, watching as both SCVs buggered off to do what I just told them to do.

_…_

_The Blue Force Terran Command Center is a vital part of any base of operations, acting as the primary resource processing, storage and fabrication of raw materials used in any building or construction. It also acts as the main hub for command operations and transmission prompts as well, capable of supplying the SCV ground units at current level [ONE] and allows other buildings to be built._

_Now select the Command Center and order five SCVs to be built._

_…_

It was like I needed a hotkey or something oh wait there it is, anyway the Command Center allowed me to build 5 SCVs at the price of 50 minerals each, I decided to ignore the fact that my minerals counter was now under a hundred.

_…_

_At current level [ONE] Blue Force Terran has [ERROR] troops located within proximity, please verify ground units._

_…_

I simply looked at each one of the Marines, letting the scanner identify and tag them on my HUD.

_…_

_Terran Commander Level [ONE] has access to 10 Marines…opening tutorial for ground combat units._

_Marines are standard Blue Force Terran ground units, capable of using small arms [C-14 IMPALER] against both ground and air targets, moderately armored as well as foot mobile, Marines will make up the bulk of any defensive or offensive force. _

_Select all Marines and issue the Move command from the menu._

_…_

At that, all of the Marine suits powered up like they had been on sleep mode or something, so far the only command option I had for these guys was Move, so I looked around before deciding where I was going to move these guys.

My base was situated on this plateau as far as I could see, three earthen ramps leading off in three directions, two of them were blocked off by piles of boulders and the third wasn't, so being the smart cookie I am, I sent them over there and decided to tag along.

_…_

_Aside from the general Move command, Marines in groups of three or more can be ordered to move in several different ways according to the situation._

_Columns, allows two single file lines at close intervals to move in one direction, typically used when moving large clusters of troops from one location to another without the fear of enemy attack._

_Skirmish, an offensive method of movement used as either a stationary or moving formation that staggers ground units in rows of ten up to five deep, allowing maximum firepower to be directed in one singular direction and minimizing casualties in the event of enemy fire._

_Defensive, a static form of troop placement that organizes units for maximum defensive capabilities, the command can be issued for another unit, structure or location as the selected troops will engage any hostile that moves within range._

_Patrol, simply orders a selected group of ground units to move between two pre-determined locations, usually when threat of enemy troops are present to provide security. _

_…_

I had fun switching between all the movement commands, watching as my 10 Marines shuffled themselves around on the go to make the desired formations, so much better than simply moving around in a tightly bunched up mob as we reached the third ramp that just so happened to be the location I was supposed to select after learning the movement types, so skipping that lesson.

_…_

_Marines and other ground units in general will automatically attack anything within range after IFF has identified hostile targets._

_Terran Commander Level [ONE] must now move into [ERROR] area unknown to search and sweep for hostile targets._

_…_

Finally, something that even I could figure out it seemed.

The ramp led down, to where I have no idea because the mini-map dominating the upper left corner of my HUD was blank until the line of sight from my Marines, who were about five feet in front of me, filled in the edges. A twitch from my left eye zoomed in on the immediate area around me instead of the entire territory I have covered so far as I kept ordering the Marines ahead every fifty feet or so.

I saw something instead of relying on my mini-map to find it as my Marines came to a halt, it was unmistakably a Zergling, no doubt about it as I carefully inched forward, not to startle the thing into attacking me, but I also wanted to get a closer look at it.

Twice the size of any dog I've ever seen before, standing on two rear legs that were corded with powerful muscles that clearly stated it could move at a rapid pace and two smaller front legs, the tail behind its body was short, but I guessed that it was mainly for balance when it was moving around. The set of arms sticking out of its back, now that was where the real threat was, regardless if this thing had teeth or not, the foot long scythe blades at the ends of those arms looked wicked sharp and deadly beyond belief. Overall I reckon the thing was about four feet long and stood about as high as my knee, a guess put it somewhere in the hundred pound range, but I had no idea when it came to guessing the approximate weight of alien creatures.

When I got a couple feet closer, I could easily another three of them cluttered around something that was also Zerg in nature, but I honestly had no idea what I was looking at.

Ten to four odds were clearly in my favor, especially since my Marines had ranged weapons, exactly 50 yards now that I think about it, and the last target was clearly stationary if the miniscule patch of Creep it was sitting wasn't even big enough to hold four Zerglings, but I didn't want to risk an all-out brawl because I had no way of replacing lost troops.

I did have the capability of throwing hand grenades though.

Activating my Grenade ability, causing the fabricator in my suit's left hand to generate a soup Thermos sized canister after ten seconds and deposit it in my hand was kind of cool, then an arc of blue light appeared on my HUD, showing the obvious trajectory of my throw and ending in a highlighted circle about 10 feet in diameter some 25 yards away.

By now all of the Zerglings were highlighted, that weird thing wasn't for some reason though and I landed the grenade right between two of them and brought my rifle up just as the grenade exploded.

Two Zerglings were reduced to kibble from close proximity of the detonation as the other two let out an earsplitting screech and charged towards me, the status indicator labeled them from neutral to hostile in less than a second as ten rifles behind me opened fire, instantly shredding the remaining pair before they made it six feet.

_…_

_Zerglings tend to make up the bulk of any Zerg force as a primary close quarters ground combat unit that stick together in large numbers to overwhelm and conquer._

_Scanning, please note that [ONE] Zerg Bio Sample has been detected, recover it through the use of an SCV and return it to the [ERROR] simply return it to the Command Center at this time. _

_…_

Now I get it, that thing was obviously a Zerg Chrysalis, I moved my Marines closer to surround it for now because I lacked the option to attack it, summoning an SCV from one of the freshly minted ones from my Command Center and ordered to come retrieve the Bio Sample. While waiting for the SCV to arrive, I walked around the thing to get a decent look at it, it was egg shaped, about as tall as me and kind of uninteresting, but if the scanner on my HUD was correct, this was clearly a High Value Target.

The SCV simply went right up to it, built some kind of box, scooped it up and headed back to the Command Center as I decided that the rest of the area wasn't going to search itself and pressed on. The occasional mineral node and gas geyser was located, getting marked on my map for future reference as I reached the edge of a cliff and decided to follow it around, something was telling me that this was a closed off area of some kind.

Now I could pick up another hint of movement and stopped my Marines before whatever it was saw them and I crept forward to get a closer look.

Two Protoss Zealots of all things were standing around a glowing orb not much bigger than myself of course my first thought that it was a Photon Cannon until I remember that a Pylon was needed to power something like that. Thinking that it was something like the Zerg Bio Sample, but from the Protoss obviously as I looked at my energy bar and then the grenade icon, methinks much abuse will be used on this little ability of mine.

Good news was that the grenade took the shields and nearly half the life points of one Zealot as they both charged towards me as my Marines lit up the second one, leaving me with the wounded one.

Rifle was up and kicking against my shoulder before I knew it, spikes were slamming into this Zealot, sparks from where the rounds were tearing through the armor and splotches of glowing blue blood where they were hitting the vitals. The psi blades on its wrists flickered first before it stumbled and went down on its face, I decided that a courtesy double to the back of the head was a requirement after a glance at the second one revealed a smoldering pile of goo and armor shards as my HUD lit up with another video.

_…_

_Zealots are the primary ground based infantry of the Protoss, utilizing energy shielding and close quarters weapons to engage enemy ground units._

_Scanning, please note that [ONE] Protoss Crystal Shard has been detected, recover it through the use of an SCV and return it to the [ERROR] simply return to the Command Center at this time._

_…_

Again I used my hotkey to order another SCV that was finished to come pick this one up, it had the appearance of a glowing basketball on top of a pedestal, it was clearly a Protoss Artifact of some kind and was important enough if I couldn't target it or destroy it.

Guessing at the obvious nature of the Tutorial so far and with a third of the area still in the black on my map, I figured that I would be finding some hostile Terran forces around here as well as I decided to press on. Sure enough I came across three green Terran Marines compared to my 10 blue Marines, they were standing around some kind of metal pod that looked like an escape pod or something as I moved my Marines into position, primed a grenade and attacked.

The clatter of automatic weapons was loud and short as my Marines held the superior numbers in this fight, my grenade killing one and crippling a second, that one was taken out by my rifle as the third was killed by a collective burst from the rest of my Marines as I waited for the inevitable.

_…_

_Marines are the primary ground force of enemy Terran forces, being able to attack both ground and air targets with assault rifles._

_Scanning, please note that [ONE] Terran Research File has been detected, recover it through the use of an SCV and return it to the [ERROR] simply return to the Command Center at this time._

_…_

A third SCV was summoned from the Command Center this time as I got a decent look at this one, it looked like a computer terminal in the side of an escape module just a little bit bigger than me as I searched the rest of the area and followed the SCV back to the Command Center.

_…_

_This concludes the Terran Commander Tutorial, please note that any new information and tactics can be reviewed in this menu at any time._

_…_

I immediately got a message notification on my HUD that I opened via another eye twitch and waited for the message to upload.

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level One to Level Two Completion _

_Requirements: 10 SCVs, 5 Depots, 3 Research Points._

_Level Two Rewards: Barracks, Science Facility_

_Allies: Command Center "Adjutant"_

_…_

_Level Three Requirements: 20 Depots, 50 SCVs, 100 Marines, 3 Science Facility Upgrades, 10 Zerg Bio Samples, 10 Protoss Crystal Shards, 10 Terran Research Files and Terran Commander Level Two_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level One to Level Two [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 3/10 Hand Grenade Kills, 2/25 Rifle Kills, 4/200 Confirmed Kills, 0/1 Commander Research Upgrade_

_…_

Good news, I could build two new buildings now that my force had reached the next level, I immediately ordered an SCV to build a Barracks and another one to build a Science Facility closer to the Command Center and the rest I ordered to get to work harvesting minerals for now. I also had a lot work to do apparently in order of ever reaching the next stage for my force and in order to do that I log a bunch of kills with both weapons and my troops it seemed, that and it was going to take an hour before my Barracks was completed.

If it wasn't that the clock at the top center of my HUD was flashing red and counting down to nightfall in less than forty-five minutes and they say that monsters come out at night, I would have busted down the rock piles and struck out on Manifest Destiny by now, but instead I decided to wait.

Might as well go see what this Adjutant is about before the sun went down.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_…_

_Location: [ERROR] Unknown_

_Time: Daylight 29th HR 31 MIN 03 SEC_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran _

_10 SCVs_

_10 Marines_

_1 Command Center_

_1 Refinery_

_5 Depots _

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 120_

_Gas: 100_

_Supply Limit: 21/60_

_…_

The Command Center looked just the same as it did over an hour, except that I could wear my armor in the elevator to where the command terminal was located.

Sitting next to the main holographic table was a station where the upper portion of human shaped robot was located, just like what you expect an Adjutant to look like as I stepped in front of it and waited for it to power on.

_"Greetings Commander,"_ the head turned to look in my direction as my visor retracted, seeing how I was inside of my own Command Center, _"I am your personal AI assistant, codename Adjutant."_

"Tell me about yourself." I waited as the request was processed.

_"Under the command of Blue Force Terran Commander Level [ONE] to further assist and monitor all functions and operations, delegating specific tasks assigned by the Commander when the Commander is either unavailable or out of contact."_ Adjutant replied as one of the screens located next to the table lit up with a series of available commands as I browsed them for a moment.

This Adjutant could monitor and do all the micro-managing whenever I was asleep or busy doing something else, nice.

_"Alert, nightfall in ten minutes, expected hostile activity imminent, prepare local defenses."_

That didn't sound good, curse the fact I had guessed monsters would come out at night, before leaving I decided to take a stab in the dark, "Show me."

One of the screens along the wall lit up with a video, actually a live video feed from the outside of the Command Center from an external camera probably, to where I could see the two ramps blocked by rocks, figures.

_"Current route leading to main base expected through these two passes that are currently impassable due to rockslides blocking the entrances, creating natural barriers that prevent anything from getting in and anything going out."_

"Inform me when hostile forces have moved within range," I glanced at the resources counter in my HUD and decided to Hell with it, "build another five Depots when the resources become available after creating another twenty SCVs for resources gathering."

_"Acknowledged Commander, logging you out at this time."_

The trip down the elevator was short and to the point, as much as I wanted to simply turtle up and wait it out, I had no idea what I was going to be facing and decided that a decent defense, with 10 marines and myself unless I decided to sacrifice a bunch of SCVs, for whatever good those would do in a straight up fight.

Both the Barracks and the Science Facility easily had another half hour before they would be completed, by then two Depots and half of the SCVs I wanted would be done by then.

I also discovered that Depots had self-dispensing ammunition drops for ground troops, in this case it was supplying Impaler ammo for when my troops ran low, which kind of sucked now that I couldn't run around with an infinite number of bullets and grenades, never had that problem in the game before.

Once I had all of the Marines top off any ammo, noticing that a single Marine had minor damage from the last Terran Marines I had fought in the tutorial but couldn't do anything about that now, I placed them in two groups of five at each ramp, myself standing in between them so I had a decent view of what would be coming up either ramp. The rocks blocked anything coming up and I discovered that I could place units right on the edge of the rubble to the point where they could shoot straight down, but the downside of that was if the rubble was destroyed while troops were still standing on it, those troops could be injured or killed, that was the tradeoff.

According to my scanner, the rubble was still fairly stable, I reminded myself that I should really keep a close eye when they started taking damage to figure out how much abuse these barriers could take, as easy as it would be for me to just order my Marines to blast them, I decided to play it safe and leave them alone.

_Nightfall in thirty seconds_

That was useful, the last of the three suns had dipped below the horizon about then and it was quiet for about fifteen seconds.

All I could hear was the faint machinery of the SCVs behind me building and harvesting resources, the faint whir of servos next to me, the hum of my suit's power core and the sound of my own breathing.

And then the loudest drawn out screeching wail I've ever heard in my life.

_It is now nighttime, be advised that enemy movement has been detected _

Swell, okay time to look alive, although I just stood there for what felt like forever until but what actually like five minutes before something moved into range.

By range I mean into the reach of the floodlights mounted onto the shoulders and chest of my suit, every Marine had the same lights as well, they could reach out like fifty feet. At first it looked like a Marine, except it was shorter and moving a lot slower, once my scanners could get a read on it, I was immediately informed what I was looking at.

Infected Civilians, I promptly named them Zombies instead and blasted the first one before it could head up the ramp on the left with a single burst from my rifle, looks like I was in for a long night.

By the time Adjutant notified me that both the Barracks and the Science Facility were finished, I was standing next to a dozen empty magazines after doing three ammo runs back to the nearest Depot to get some more, another thing I learned was that Depots also had a recharge port for any unit that used energy, there were three Depots currently under construction next to the ramps so I wouldn't have to send my Marines so far to get ammo.

_Commander, Barracks is online, Science Facility is online, 16 SCVs have been constructed, what are your orders?_

About time, "Adjutant I need five Marines on the double and have a second Barracks built next to the first."

_Affirmative_

By now the Zombies were coming in steady streams, mostly in ones and twos, but an occasional cluster of a dozen or so just begging for a grenade would wander over within range, to the point where my Marines were spending more time shooting than they were waiting for another target. The rubble had suffered minor damage and both were still holding strong it seemed, for now anyway, but I was content to pretty much spray and pray on full auto in a wide sweeping arc at that point where the congregation of Zombies was at the thickest before they split.

The good news was that my SCVs had been highly productive when it came to mining and gathering gas, the only problem I had was that it took forever to build a single Barracks and I needed a lot more Marines than I currently had at hand. They were still spread thin, five per side and me in the center burning through ammo like no tomorrow, tossing the occasional grenade every so often, but it was nice having the Adjutant handle the little things for me while I was busy.

So far only Zombies had been seen, having no armor and lacking tough bodies to be highly resilient to spikes fired near hypersonic speeds to the head, what they lacked individually was more than made up from their sheer numbers that was steadily growing every ten minutes, at the rate they kept coming, I doubt I would last the night with what I had.

Another grenade took out five and wounded three more to the point I only had to hit them once to drop them, if I had to hazard a guess, the kill count requirements for reaching the next level as a Commander had been filled half an hour ago.

I was curious about the Science Facility, but simply couldn't afford to be distracted right now as the first batch of Marines were finished and sent over here as Adjutant compensated and ordered another five to be created and built a third Barracks when I sent the order.

The first batch went to the left and I shifted my attention to the right until the next five were finished, an agonizing five minutes let me tell you, the good news was that the Depots were finished, making the trips to get ammo that much shorter and I was throwing grenades without any regard, making sure that I wasn't throwing them near the rubble or my own troops.

Once there was a total of forty Marines strong, I could afford to relax a little bit as the second and third Barracks were finished and started cranking out troops.

Twenty Marines to a side in groups of ten that automatically rotated out to grab ammo when one group ran low, I took a breather and grabbed some water as a display was lit up on my HUD.

_Commander, local forces can easily hold this current position against the Rouge Zerg assaulting this position for now._

"Yeah I figured," I watched as another trio of Marines walked over from the Barracks to join those fighting, "halt unit production when a hundred Marines have been reached, unless I say otherwise."

_Affirmative_

I trudged over to the Science Facility, mostly to satisfy my own curiosity than anything else, that and the adrenaline coursing through my system probably had something to do with it as I stepped inside. The interior of the Science Facility was a pristine white, giving off a sterile sort of feel about the place as I walked over to the only command terminal in the room and waited for it to activate.

When the terminal powered up, I found myself looking at several different upgrade options, which honestly surprised me as I started reading them over.

Weapons Upgrade increased the overall damage any infantry based weapon system could cause to any receiving target, because I was level two I only had access to the first one, of how many were available I had no clue to be honest. For the cost of 300 minerals and 150 gas all the weapons of my Marines could do an additional 10% damage and 10% firing rate after a research time of two hours, so I selected that upgrade before moving on to the next upgrade option.

Armor Upgrade would improve the effectiveness of infantry based armor plating and systems by some margin that would add up, it had the same cost as the first and I made a note for that upgrade to the next in line once the resources became available.

Range Upgrade, now that was a good one to keep in mind, would improve the overall effective range of all infantry units by given distances for each type of infantry, the only information was for Marines and it would add another 10 meters of range, that could wait.

Movement Upgrade would increase the reaction time and speed of infantry units when it came to moving, running or shooting, a good one to keep in mind, though I seriously doubted that outrunning these Zombies would come down to speed and more or else require distance.

Ammunition Upgrade, increasing the overall capacity of ammunition carried by individual units, that would come in handy later on when I had to expand and couldn't have Depots every ten feet, though it only granted Marines to carry two extra magazines for the first upgrade, another one for later.

All of these tier one upgrades had the same cost and research time as I checked the next glowing tab that was marked Terran Commander Upgrades to see what I had available.

Alright the good news was that the Terran Commander Upgrade tab was pretty straight forward now that I got a decent look at it, only one slot was highlighted and the rest were blacked out as another message prompt opened in my HUD.

_…_

_The Terran Commander Research Upgrades reflect solely on the abilities and augments of the Terran Commander, often improving combat proficiency, providing additional weapons and opening new options in terms of troop management and such. _

_Please note that any Terran Commander Research Upgrades cost an equal number of all three research points, at this time please select Rally Cry for the purpose of this demonstration._

_…_

Being the only icon highlighted, I noticed a small message box appear when I looked at it long enough, telling me that it was going to cost 1 Terran Research File, 1 Zerg Bio Sample and 1 Protoss Crystal Shard, which was all that I had on hand currently.

Once I selected it, first the icon flashed before joining the rest of the Science Facility research queues, except instead of being at the long end of the list, it appeared in its own window with a rapidly moving progress bar below the first as another message file appeared on my HUD.

_…_

_Rally Cry, an active skill used by the Terran Commander, simply affects any friendly unit within range of its activation. It boosts attack speed, movement speed and weapon damage by 50% for 30 seconds at the cost of 45 energy with a 5 minute cool down afterwards, it is in short used as a last defense measure against the final attack wave or against a superior enemy unit. _

_Other Allies can use this ability [ERROR] Terran Commander Level [TWO] has no Allies capable of direct combat at this time._

_…_

I got to watch another video, this one of a dozen Marines, a Terran Commander and an overwhelming number of Zerglings, a number that quite frankly didn't require a genius to figure out meant utter defeat in less than ten seconds, imagine my surprise when it didn't end in less than ten seconds. Took more like twenty after the Terran Commander gained a light blue aura that touched every Marine within range and it was like everything was on fast forward times eight.

Needless to say I was truly impressed watching a handful of Marines demolish nearly fifty Zerglings in a straight up fight, no Bunkers, air strikes or even local terrain to aid them, all they did was power up, open fire at astonishing rates and move backwards in short intervals to avoid having the Zerglings get within range. Now that was handy, considering it didn't cost any health like Stimpacks would and if it wasn't for the high energy cost and long recharge rate in a fight, I would expect much abuse to come from it.

Once the video ended, I had a new icon on the corner of my HUD, instead of a foot or a grenade, it was the depiction of a flag.

It was also about then that I got a message prompt on my HUD that opened automatically without any input on my behalf.

_…_

_Terran Commander Level One to Level Two Complete_

_Requirements: 10/10 Hand Grenade Kills, 25/25 Rifle Kills, 200/200 Confirmed Kills, 1/1 Commander Research Upgrade_

_Rewards: +15 Energy, +50 Personal Shielding, +100 Health Points/.5 HPM and +1 Range_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Two to Level Three [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 0/50 Hand Grenade Kills, 0/150 Rifle Kills, 0/500 Confirmed Kills, 0/1 Rescued Allies, 0/2 Commander Research Upgrades, 0/3 Boss Kills_

_…_

After the message faded away I noticed another bar in the corner of my HUD, this was located above my energy bar and was a light gold, simply stating 50/50 with a small reminder next to it that the recharge rate was around 10 points a minute. Now I had my very own personal energy shields, go figure, that and my energy bar increase by 15 points, my health jumping 100 points with a small reminder that I could recover half a health point every minute that I was out of combat, not great, but at the same time not bad either.

And it was then that my Adjutant decided to be the bearer of bad news.

_Warning, unidentified Zerg lifeform detected, expected arrival at chokepoint in six minutes and nine seconds with overwhelming number of Zerg bio signs._

Well shit.

The good news was that both barricades were still holding and I noticed that I had easily over a hundred Marines by now, 40 at each barricade and the remaining 20 waiting in reserve just out of range, I sent the order for the reserve to divide up and get ready for a fight as I reached my usual spot and looked around. The ground in front of the ramps were littered with spike ridden corpses, scorch marks from my earlier grenades and a lot of bodies, more than I remembered since I left earlier, but anyway, the real kicker was the monstrosity heading towards my defenses.

Now when I say monstrosity, I don't mean a regular Zerg unit (at least I hope this wasn't a regular Zerg unit) either, this was like nothing I've seen before as I got a good look at it.

It stood nearly twenty feet high, walked on a pair of short stubby legs and had a set of mangled arms that would've look good on King Kong, the overall appearance after a closer look revealed some rather disturbing details I really didn't want to know as my HUD lit up with another message, of all the times why now when I had a literally monster stalking towards me?

_…_

_Behold the Zerg unit designation "Frankenstein" a rare ground unit that cannot handle any amount of UV radiation, leaving it to wander about only at night as it has been reported to move slowly and lack any sort of ranged attack. The downside however, is the fact that this creature has an unreasonably high health point count that requires much damage in order to kill it, earning the nickname as a Night Boss._

_It is unknown if this creature is simply a collection of regular Zombies merged together to form a single larger unit or was created that way to strike fear, recommended long range weapons or fliers to attack._

_…_

Okay, that was really helpful (not) as I found this thing stepping foot onto the left ramp and decided to do something about it.

Toggling Rally Cry, I watched my energy bar drop to 5 as everything around me sped up and got really loud, as in a hundred gauss rifles opening up on a single target the size of a billboard sign close enough that entire thing was filling in the edges of my HUD.

_468…372…229…145…97…34…17…000_

Breath, reload, aim and pull the trigger.

The health bar display above this things' head was dropping at a remarkable rate as I watched the ammo counter on my rifle dropping like a rock again as Frankenstein finally reached the rubble acting as the only real defense I had at the time as it lifted a fist the size of a dump truck above what I think was its head.

_300…219…140…83…27…4…000_

Grabbing another magazine from my belt, my second to last one I might add, I managed to reload before Frankenstein let out a roar and brought its massive fist down, I had just enough time to issue the move command before the giant club like fist struck the edge of the barricade.

Two Marines winked from existence on my HUD and the pile of rubble went straight from a healthy green to a sickly yellow in a single hit as I started shooting again.

Before this thing could attack again, its health bar reached zero and it simply exploded in a satisfying shower of gore as something else happened.

Something bounced over the barricade, rolling past my Marines as they automatically stepped out of the way, more concerned with the horde of Zerg Zombies coming right on the heels of Frankenstein, using the last of the Rally Cry to take out as many of the advancing Zombies before they got too close as I did the same until I ran out of ammo and decided to investigate whatever that thing was.

At first glance it looked like a Zerg Bio Sample except it was glowing a purplish light as my HUD chirped, great another message.

_…_

_Scanning, please note that [TEN] Zerg Bio Samples has been detected, recover it through the use of an SCV and return it to the Science Facility at this time._

_…_

Holy crap, this thing was worth 10 Zerg Bio Samples? Now talk about convenience, I watched with glee as an SCV showed up to collect it and take it to the Science Facility, by that time I grabbed more ammo and energy from a Depot and took my spot again, looking for things to shoot.

_Advisory: No further Zerg bio signs detected in the area, however Protoss energy signatures reported to be moving in this direction, estimated time of arrival, 1 hour. _

It was going to be a long night, I could tell.

First thing I did was order the Adjutant to create another 30 Marines, another 10 SCVs to be built, build another five Depots near the first cluster so I had room around the ramps and I decided that now was a good time to get something to eat from the Commander Center.

Once I was out of my suit, to mostly work the kinks out my neck and shoulders, I took the elevator up so I could see what Adjutant was up to and to figure a few things out.

Considering the fact that the night wasn't even halfway over, I had a sneaking suspicion that with the Protoss already on the way, there was going to be enemy Terran coming after me after the Protoss, and if what I had just gone through was any indicator, I would have two more bosses to fight tonight. Which would easily solve my level requirements, as much as I wanted to go to the Science Facility and see what those 10 Zerg Bio Samples could get me, I forced myself to wait until after my forces reached level three before I would go pay the Science Facility a visit.

That lasted until I realized that I could access the Science Facility command screen from another terminal here in the Command Center, but all I did was see how my current upgrades were coming, the first upgrade would be done in less than ten minutes before the next one would start. Another thing it told me was that in order for the upgrades to go into effect for the troops I already had, they would have to get cycled through the Barracks again to implement the upgrades, rather than all of my forces just magically being granted the improvements, darn.

"Adjutant, what are Rescued Allies?" I decided to take my chances and ask, the worst answer I could receive was nothing.

_Rescued Allies: query found in data banks, simply individuals that operate within specific skillset parameters that can aid the Terran Commander. _

_Further information on Rescued Allies has yielded [ZERO] results, data banks [CORRUPTED] possible locations unknown. _

Better than nothing I guess.

"Any ideas on what to expect for level three, as a whole?" I added the second part on as an afterthought as the robotic Adjutant stared at me for a few seconds.

_Query not found, data banks [CORRUPTED] level three for Blue Terran Force unknown_

Shrugging I decided that now was the time to use the bathroom, get something to eat and then suit back up with the Protoss coming, I figured that the best way for me to score massive amount of kills was going to be at night, while there were still barricades left to hold them at bay for now.

Just after I climbed into my suit, I noticed that the first Science Facility upgrade had been implemented into my suit, which was nice as I walked out to the barricade, taking my usual spot in the center and surveyed my troops. All of them were loaded for bear, ready to go and more importantly, none of them were wounded as I ordered them to cycle out in groups of five to the nearest to get the new upgrade installed.

_Warning, Protoss forces moving within range_

Perfect, now I had things to shoot.

Rather than an army of Zealots charging towards me, I think I got the cannibalized armed village people version instead as the first one stepped into view, cue HUD message.

_…_

_Protoss Thralls are little more than lightly shielded and lightly armed militia in terms of warfare, typically made up of fanatics that will gladly throw themselves into a fight, dangerous in overwhelming numbers and lacking any ranged attack capabilities._

_…_

Okay that makes sense, now that one of them got close enough, I was happy to see that it had less shields than I did and it only one arm lit up with a signature psi blade and was moving at about the same speed as the Zerg Zombies had, oh this was going to be like shooting ducks at a carnival as I gave the order to engage.

Sure enough the upgrade had a noticeable effect, if the unmodified Marines next to me were any real indicator in terms of damage inflicted on these things was anything to go by, that and I had superior range over my own Marines as I happily burned through ammo. Just like the Zombies from earlier, they at first came in ones and twos before arriving in groups that could get taken out by a single grenade as I spent a lot of time blasting anything that moved, used up my quota of grenades and then retrieved more from the Depot a couple feet away.

Turns out that not all of Marines could fire from where they were standing, like the back row and the Marines I had in reserve, so I kept cycling the Marines through the Barracks to get the new upgrade, rotating the ones with said upgrade with the ones in the front rows that hadn't yet, making a mental note to implement this technique whenever future upgrades were researched, as the only thing it cost me was some time instead of resources.

I had just finished getting the last three grenade kills I needed when Adjutant spoke up.

_Warning, unidentified Protoss energy signature detected moving towards current location, estimated time of arrival in five minutes_

By that time over half of my Marines had the first and second upgrades implemented, I hadn't gone back to the Command Center to get my upgrades implemented yet, so I decided to tough it out and wait to see what was coming towards my defensive line of over a hundred Marines.

So far the Thralls had done minimal damage to the barricades, hopefully this thing didn't come straight for the left or else I was going to be in trouble if these Night Bosses could practically one shot a barrier, right now I really wished that I had some Bunkers and Siege Tanks at my disposal.

_…_

_The Protoss City Guard is little more than a robotic defense platform that activates when enough Thralls have died, their souls powering this machine into action. Built for localized defense and pest control, the City Guard has been reported to support heavy shielding and fully powered psi blades that are devastating to any ground unit within range, lacking any form of ranged attack or anti-air capabilities either, best course of action calls for long range weapons and fliers._

_…_

The City Guard in my opinion was a glorified golden statue thirty feet tall in the exact likeness of a Thrall, if only a lot bigger, sporting two psi blades longer than I was tall and a lot of shields once my HUD scanner picked up on it, as in I really hoped that my Rally Cry would be enough to tear those shields down before this thing got on top of the barricades.

After it moved into range, I activated my Rally Cry and started firing along with the rest of my Marines, the only ones outside my range of influence were the ones I had in reserve and the last 10 coming the Barracks with the installed upgrades, guess it couldn't be helped.

Again it was downright unnerving as this thing marched up the ramp on the right, taking the ridiculous amount of damage my Marines were throwing at it like it was nothing as it reached the barricade, though this time I was expecting what was about to happen. Right as it was ready to attack, raising both arms until they were crossed in front of its body in the form of an X, I ordered my Marines to move back, as the Marines in reserve could now finally shoot the SOB and gladly opened fire.

What happened next surprised me, as the City Guard slashed the barricade, green dropping all the way to the red for crying out loud, as the shields were taken out and now damage to its actual health, thinking that I had this in the bag, it came as a bit of a shock when the damn thing teleported to the left barricade and slashed it too, yellow dropping to a pitiful level of red that scared me.

Luckily for me, Rally Cry hadn't worn off just yet as every last rifle pumped what remaining rounds were needed to kill this thing as it exploded in a wisp of white energy, a glowing orb falling over the barricade.

Once the last of the attacking Thralls were killed, some of them having gotten close enough to destroy the remainder of the left barricade before my Marines could stop them, leaving me with a quarter of the original barricade on the right and a wide open lane on the left side as I walked over the Protoss Crystal Shard to have a look at it.

_…_

_Scanning, please note that [TEN] Protoss Crystal Shards have been detected,_ _recover it through the use of an SCV and return it to the Science Facility at this time. _

_…_

This one was glowing a faint yellow and just a little bit bigger than the first one I had encountered as an SCV came and picked it up, I was still pissed at the fact that the City Guard had teleported to the other barricade and pretty much guaranteed one barricade would fall, when I still had the Terran to deal with tonight.

_Advisory: No further Protoss energy signatures detected in the area, however Terran IFF signals reported to be moving in this direction, estimated time of arrival, 1 hour. _

Same deal as before, hopefully they weren't going to be throwing Marines at me just yet or else I was going to be in a world of hurt when the Night Boss showed up, though if I was willing to bet, this one wouldn't have a ranged attack either, hopefully.

Rinse and repeat, drop my suit off in the Suit Bay to receive another upgrade, get something to eat and wait until the Terran showed up to attack my base.

It was about this time that I noticed the initial mineral node cluster around my Command Center was low, all four Refineries were getting low too as I remembered the area where I had first encountered the Zerg, Protoss and Terran, sending some SCVs that way to bring back minerals I needed and decided to wait for the geysers to run dry before I Salvaged the Refineries to build some more.

Using the terminal in the Command Center, I put the rest of the Science Facility research items in line, just the ones that required minerals and gas instead of the important research points I have collected so far. Another thing that I learned, even though I had upgraded the tier one level upgrades, I didn't have access to the tier two upgrades until I both leveled up my force and my own Commander level again, guess that meant I was sort of at Nerf status with my corresponding level.

By the time the hostile Terran showed up, I had the tier one upgrades for damage, armor, range and ammo, half of my Marines had the same and the rest were rotating around to get the last one, it felt nice to have an additional two magazines for my rifle, and the good news was that all I needed was to kill this last boss, collect the research points and bam, Terran Level Three here I come.

When the first hostile Terran stepped into view, I sighed, this was going to be interesting.

_…_

_Terran Ravagers make up the bulk of hostile Terran forces at night, originating from pirate bands, smugglers and other organizations that lack the resources and equipment to build and equip proper CMC power armor and weapons. Equipped with personal small arms referred as "slug throwers" and wearing basic ballistic vests, these ragtag troops are only dangerous at close range and in large numbers._

_…_

I think the best comparison I could make at what I was looking at would be calling these Terran Ravagers the equivalent of Clone Troopers compared to my Marines, the body armor they had wouldn't stop more than a few spikes and they had about the same health points as Zombies.

The range they had was less than half of a default Marine, seeing as how my Marines had a range upgrade, along with damage, the first couple of waves fell like wheat before they could even fire on the barricade or my Marines. When they finally came in large enough numbers that proved to be troublesome and could finally shoot at both the right barricade and my Marines on the left, I almost laughed at the damage they could inflict, almost because while it was so little, they could still take down my Marines because I lacked any way to heal or repair damaged Marines at the moment.

Another good thing was that the required kills, both with my weapons and confirmed, were completed as the final boss of the night decided to make an appearance.

_ Warning, unidentified Terran IFF signal detected moving towards current location, estimated time of arrival in five minutes_

Alright, I shuffled what few wounded Marines I had to the reserve group, grabbed some more ammo and waited, already planning out in my head how I was going to fight this thing, if it went left things would get interesting, if it went right then hopefully the remains of the barricade would slow it down long enough for it to be killed. Best case scenario it had no means of a ranged attack, worst case it did and I would have to suffer losses no doubt if this thing could shoot even half as far as the Ravagers could.

My worst fears were confirmed as the Terran Boss stepped into range, though I actually waited for the HUD message to appear after I tagged it.

_…_

_Considered a last resort, the Terran Berserker was an attempt at creating a superior ground based combat unit in the event conventional Ravager attacks failed. The idea behind the oversized power armor was to install fear in enemy forces, however the thing was reported to have lacking any real anti-air capabilities, leaving the Berserker to only be seen at night, using the cover of darkness to avoid hostile fliers. One notable feature is that the Berserker has in fact, a ranged attack that deals additional damage against infantry units, long range weapons and fliers advised._

_…_

At first glance the thing looked like a junkyard version of the Iron Monger from Iron Man 1 to be honest, if it wasn't for what appeared to be an oversized Impaler in its hands I would have thought it tossed grenades or something, this was definitely not going to be fun. Especially after I realized that this thing had two life bars above its head, well actually it had an armor bar and a health point bar, so just like the Protoss City Guard this thing was going to be a bullet sponge.

Good, because I actually had plenty of bullets and upgraded firepower as the Berserker, I changed the designation to Iron Monger, just because I could as I activated Rally Cry when it moved into range.

It went right, big sigh of relief, because it had to shoot through what was left of the barricade first, thus buying me some precious time and saving me the time and effort to tear what was left of it down once I finished killing this thing off.

_451…327…220...169…95…32…000_

Shit, time to reload, good news half of the armor was gone and it still hadn't fired yet, looks like this was going to be easy enough.

I just had to jinx myself.

The second it reached the bottom of the ramp, it didn't open fire, instead it crouched and then broke into a flat out run, fast than anything I've seen so far, charging right up the ramp in less time than it took to finish reloading, at my current amped speed mind you and smashed right through what was left of the barricade like it had been a speed bump.

Three Marines had been flattened before it came to a halt, moving at that deceptive slowness as it brought its weapon to bare and starting firing in short bursts at my Marines that were within touching distance of this thing.

In the time it took for me to unload another magazine, reload and dump half of that magazine into this thing, nine Marines had been wiped out as this thing fired at each one twice, turned to the next and fired two bursts and continued moving along, the good news was it only targeted the ones right in front of it rather than say me.

I almost wished there was an escape option to avoid the next message as the Iron Monger exploded in a shower of shrapnel that killed another Marine and wounded another two as the Terran Research File, this one larger than the first and pulsing with a light blue strobe, fell to the ground and sat there as an final wave of Ravagers arrived.

_…_

_Scanning, please_ _note that [TEN] Terran Research Files have been detected, recover it through the use of an SCV and return it to the Science Facility at this time._

_…_

After the final Ravager was put down, that final assault costing me another two Marines from the sheer numbers they threw at the now wide open ramps was enough to actually cause some damage, I ordered an SCV to pick it up as I headed towards the Command Center, giving Adjutant express orders to replace the lost units and report if any hostiles were approaching.

Just as I entered the Suit Bay, another message came up on my display as I waited to see what it was.

_…_

_ Blue Force Terran Level Three Complete_

_Requirements: 22/20 Depots, 62/50 SCVs, 103/100 Marines, 4/3 Science Facility Upgrades, 10/10 Zerg Bio Samples, 10/10 Protoss Crystal Shards, 10/10 Terran Research Files and Terran Commander Level Two_

_Rewards: Factory, Merc Compound, Bunkers, Reactor-Barracks_

_Available Units: Firebats, Vultures, Mercs [ERROR] Rescued Allies Required_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 22/50 Depots, 62/100 SCVs, 103/200 Marines, 0/50 Firebats, 0/10 Vultures, 4/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 10/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 10/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 10/30 Terran Research Files, 0/2 Rescued Allies 4/2 Barracks, 1/3 Command Centers, 0/1 Factory, 0/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four _

_Terran Commander Level Two to Level Three [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 50/50 Hand Grenade Kills, 150/150 Rifle Kills, 500/500 Confirmed Kills, 0/1 Rescued Allies, 1/2 Commander Research Upgrades, 3/3 Boss Kills_

_…_

This was very good news, I ordered both a Factory and a Merc Compound to be built, each one cost 500 minerals and 200 gas, along with 6 hours for the Merc Compound and 10 hours for the Factory in building time, though whatever minerals I had left on hand was used to build four Bunkers and a Reactor on two of my Barracks for now.

Now all I needed to do was wait for my new buildings to finish so I could start making new units, I was hoping for Medics at least, but Firebats couldn't be all that bad I guess, at worst I figured the Vultures could be used as scouts around my base, if they could build Spider Mines right off the bat, then even better. I needed a total of one Rescued Allies as well, where I was going to find those I had no idea for now, along with an obvious unit limit to meet before I could reach the next level, good to know that I wasn't hindered by a pesky limit cap.

I also had two more Barracks than I needed, points for having the initiative I guess, but I also needed two more Command Centers, I about cried at the cost to build just one, 2,000 minerals, 1,750 gas and 32 hours for building, yeah like not happening now with what pitiful resources I had now.

There was however the option of building some Firebats, though costing 100 minerals and 50 gas with a 10 minute build time was a steep jump compared to Marines, though I put in an order for 20 of them to be built when the resources became available, just because I needed to have a specific number of them didn't mean I was going to go out of my way to build them all right this second. Turns out I don't need a Tech Lab to build them from a regular Barracks either, but it would tie up a single Barracks for an hour to make just 5 of them when I could make a lot more Marines in that time.

Because there was still four hours of the night left, I decided it would be safer if I remained within the relative safety of my ramps, it would force any attacking ground units at least to march right into a formidable wall of Marines waiting for them, that and it would be light soon.

I opened the Science Facility terminal to see what I had available and wasn't honestly surprised when another tab appeared, Research Points, so being the clever cookie I pretend to be, I selected it and waited for the window to open.

When it did, I was marginally surprised to find three different options waiting for me, one for Zerg Bio Samples, another for Protoss Crystal Shards and finally, the last for Terran Research Files, just like what I had seen for the Terran Commander Upgrades, expected different obviously. Instead of each upgrade costing research points from other classes, Zerg would cost Zerg, Terran costing Terran and Protoss obviously requiring Protoss points, being curious I decided to see what was available.

_Zerg Bio Sample Research Level One: Adrenaline Kit, grants all Infantry based ground units to carry 1 Health Pack that restores +25 health points, costs 1 Zerg Bio Sample Research Point._

_Protoss Chrystal Shard Research Level One: Heating Coils, grants all infantry based ground units +10% Rate of Fire, cost 1 Protoss Chrystal Shard Research Point._

_Terran Research File Research level One: Optics Range, improves all infantry based ground units +1 Sight Range (Not attack range), cost 1 Terran research File Research Point._

As you can tell, I had already clicked on all three of them, seeing as they only cost me a single research point each, that and I couldn't select the next ones in line until they were upgraded first, so even if I thought the sight range upgrade was kind of a waste, I had a feeling that some of the future upgrades were going to be very similar in that regard, though these level one upgrades were only going to take an hour and the bonus was that instead of waiting for one at a time like the regular Science Facility upgrades, each one was just like the Terran Commander Upgrade from earlier, each one already starting in its own progress bar.

Which reminded me, I decided to check out the Terran Commander Upgrade tab as well, seeing that I had a bunch of spare research points as well.

The good news that instead of having to upgrade them in order to unlock the next upgrade, it seemed like I could upgrade any of them if I had the required research points.

_Terran Commander Upgrade 2- Grenade Detonation, Hand Grenades gain 10% larger blast radius and can explode on contact with enemy targets, cost 2 of each research point._

_Terran Commander Upgrade 3- Detector, Terran Commander now has short range passive Detector, used to located burrowed, cloaked or hidden enemies, cost 3 of each research point._

_Terran Commander Upgrade 4- Double Energy, Terran Commander gains double energy and lowered recharge rate, cost 4 of each research point._

And just like that, the available list stopped, guess I was going to have to unlock all of them as I went higher as I weighed my options on this list.

I really wanted Detector, because if I was going to be leaving the relative safety of my base, who knew what kind of trouble I was going to run into out there, but in order to have it I needed to research Grenade Detonation, so after a minute of consideration, I decided to upgrade both Grenade Detonation and Detector for now, taking away five of each research points. Sadly instead of opening their own research bar, they could only go one at a time, made sense I guess I as glanced at the rest of my options at the Science Facility considering I was already here.

Now that a majority of the tier one upgrades were done I thought I could jump right to the tier two upgrades, but turns out I couldn't do that until all of the tier one upgrades were finished first, talk about a real pain in the ass.

That and I was tired, so I put an order in with the Adjutant to notify me of any changes as I walked into my quarters and nosedived into the pillow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 26/50 Depots, 74/100 SCVs, 172/200 Marines, 20/50 Firebats, 0/10 Vultures, 7/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 4/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 4/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 4/30 Terran Research Files, 0/1 Rescued Allies, 4/2 Barracks, 1/3 Command Centers, 0/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four _

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Two to Level Three [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 50/50 Hand Grenade Kills, 150/150 Rifle Kills, 500/500 Confirmed Kills, 0/1 Rescued Allies, 3/2 Commander Research Upgrades, 3/3 Boss Kills_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 2,450_

_Gas: 5,760_

_Supply: 267/270_

_…_

Eight and a half hours, not so bad I guess, the good news I only lost about four hours of daylight, the Merc Compound was finished, all four Bunkers were also finally constructed and loaded with a 3 Marines to 1 Firebat ratio to protect the entrance leading into my base, the rest of my forces standing just behind the Bunkers to provide further fire support in the event of an attack. I ate breakfast, reviewed the progress terminal next to Adjutant, learning that all of the tier one upgrades, weapon damage, armor, range, movement and ammo were finished, but I couldn't start researching the next tier because my force needed to level up before that could happen, though I was pleased that all of the special research points had finished as well while I had been asleep.

The Factory still had a few hours left before it was finished, really wanted to make some Vultures just to see if they were worth using in wolf packs to explore, leaving me to sit in the safety of my Command Center, but alas, no such luck.

Once I reached the Suit Bay and got in my suit, I was surprised to find a few things waiting for me.

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Two_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Power Armor Sprint=10 meter range 15 Energy cost, Power Armor Hand Grenade=1 HE Grenade 15 Energy cost, Detector=Passive skill_

_Health: 250 HP: .5 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +2_

_Energy: 65/65: Recharge rate 5 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 50/50: Recharge rate 10 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant_

_…_

Grabbed my rifle off the rack and was headed for the door before another HUD message from Adjutant appeared before I made it far, something tells me that this was going to become a habit.

_Greetings Commander, be advised that a priority distress signal was detected, do you wish to review playback?_

"Send it."

Another window opened on my HUD, this was smaller and seemed to be comprised of a simple frequency bar, a name and a vital signs readout as the window came to life.

_"This is Sergeant Casari call sign Minotaur, message as follows; currently pinned down at supplied coordinates by hostile Terran forces, squad force dwindling in number due to low ammunition and lack of medical supplies, we are cut off and outnumbered, any available assistance please respond."_

With that, the message ended, I could tell that whoever this person was had obviously been a woman, that and the sounds of gunfire, Impaler no doubt, could also be heard before the message cut off as I activated a command to Adjutant.

"Any contact established?" I was out the door and mustering a decent sized force of 50 Marines and 12 Firebats to form up on me as I headed towards the ramp, a waypoint appearing on my HUD with the destination coordinates this transmission had come from, just under a kilometer away to the south, take a left at the ramps.

_Negative Commander, it appears that Sgt. Casari is unable to respond, have locked onto IFF signal instead, life signs still within acceptable levels_

I got a good look at my shiny new Firebats as one of them got closer, it was bigger than a Marine by half a foot and looked like it had thicker armor plating. Rather than tote an assault rifle around, Firebats instead had a nozzle sticking out of the top of each gauntlet with a small pilot light burning and a single, well make that two great big tanks on its back with the ammo upgrade being installed, now giving them twice as much flamethrower fuel. As much as I wanted to bring all of my troops along and leaving only the ones inside the Bunkers for security, I decided to play it safe and take about a third instead, that way I had plenty left behind to defend my base while I was away or if I needed the cavalry to come charging to my rescue.

"Adjutant, construct another ten Depots and have another five SCVs built," I ordered as I stepped into the black, areas where none of my units or myself for that matter had gone before, "replace any lost units as they fall, report back to me if the base comes under attack."

_Affirmative Commander_

Now back to the task at hand, traveling through a largely unknown area with only myself and all the troops I brought along for this little endeavor, feeling insignificant at the sheer area I would have to traverse in order to get where I needed to go.

I knew that I was going up against Rouge Terran, but against what I had no idea, at best it would be a bunch of those weak Ravagers, but then again it wasn't nighttime so I could be going up against a defensive line of Siege Tanks, Bunkers and a couple of Battlecruisers for all I knew. I could use Rally Cry once and throw one hand grenade immediately afterwards if I really had too before all of my energy would be depleted, that and I had 3,500 rounds for my Impaler, not to mention a bunch of Marines and a few Firebats thrown in to mix things up.

I heard the sound of gunfire before I saw it, I had my troops formed into a skirmish formation, mostly to spread out to cover as much area as I could while moving towards my intended destination without having to sacrifice speed, my Firebats had oriented themselves in the front rank at even intervals automatically as the scene of a fight came into view.

At first it was a couple of destroyed Terran Ravagers, then Rouge Terran Marines, a few oddly colored Marines that were not mine or Rouge, then the charred remains of a Bunker before I finally reached the actual battle. Ten Rouge Marines were outside of a small cave, firing inward and therefore exposed to an ambush from the rear as I gave the order to attack once my guys moved within range, watching as the Rouges were destroyed from a single collective burst from my Marines, the Firebats hadn't even made it halfway to the Rouge Marines to use their flamethrowers.

Once the last of them dropped dead in an animated shower of armor shards and gore, three of those light grey Marines, matching the unknown dead ones I'd seen earlier, stepped out of the cave.

At first glance I thought they were regular Marines until I noticed that they were slightly larger than my own, sporting some thicker armor plating and different shaped visors, what surprised me was that no messages appeared on my HUD after I got a full scan of these guys either, so I stepped closer, wary if these things decided to attack.

"Sgt. Casari?" The loudspeakers in my suit helped my amplified voice carry far enough as one of the strange Marines stepped forward.

_"She isn't here boss, went off to gather the rest of the squad after we got separated, I got them coordinates of their last known locations, we'll be happy to join ya if you don't mind having the extra guns."_

Shit, the originator of the distress signal wasn't here and instead of I was left with three beefed up, wait a second, they couldn't be could they?

"Are you War Pigs by chance? Mercenaries?"

_"That's right boss, we were part of a tactical assault squad." _

Hell yes, "Alright you can join."

First all three of them changed color to match my own blue, they appeared on my HUD as friendlies and three new waypoints appeared on my mini-map, in the rough shape on a triangle about a kilometer to the south, even farther than I've already traveled as I decided to get a good look at these War Pigs before moving out.

They had double health points, +1 armor point, a slightly more powerful Impaler that could outshoot what my Marines had and moved a little faster than any Marines I had, making them welcome additions to my force.

I decided to head towards the first waypoint closest to me, making a quick scout of the area first to reveal a cluster of mineral nodes and a geyser that I marked for later. The terrain was mostly sand dunes, the occasional rock sticking out of the sand and some kind of strange cactus looking thing every so far before the familiar sound of gunfire could be heard again.

This time there were about 15 Rouge Marines and 3 Firebats firing away at the mouth of a small cave in the side of a cliff, I gave the order and watched as they were all shot down before any of my units could receive any damage.

Imagine my not quite surprise as another three neutral War Pigs, seven regular Marines and two normal Firebats stepped out of the cave.

_"We're with you Commander!"_

Sure enough they all appeared on my HUD as friendlies and joined my ranks without much hassle as I headed towards the second waypoint, marking the occasional cluster of minerals and geysers I went before I stumbled upon sings of another fight.

Four burned out hulks that used to be Bunkers were surrounded by a literal field of corpses bearing the Rouge Terran colors, I didn't find that many neutral Terran corpses either until I neared one of the destroyed Bunkers as my HUD lit up.

_…_

_Scanning, please note that [THREE] Resource Caches have been detected, simply recover through the means of an available unit._

_…_

What the, oh now I see them, sitting next to the farthest wreckage were two blue glowing crates and a single green barrel, so I sent a Firebat over to pick them and see what they were actually worth, who was I to give up free stuff?

Turns out each cache was worth 500 in their respective resources, now that is what I am talking about, being much happier with 1,000 minerals and 500 gas in the bank as I made damn sure to keep an eye out for more of them, even better news was that I didn't need an SCV to come all the way out here to pick them up either, as I had been ready to summon three of them if the Firebat hadn't done anything, though each SCV would have brought some escorts.

The second waypoint actually had 20 Rouge Marines, 5 Rouge Firebats and a single Bunker, loaded with what, I was going to take a guess it had Marines inside as they all fired on a small cave where I would surely find either more troops or even Sgt. Casari if I was lucky.

But first to deal with all of these guys.

Because the enemy had almost half the number of troops I had, not to mention the advantage of having a Bunker loaded with bad guys as well, I split my force in half to catch the ones outside of the Bunker in a pincher like ambush as my Firebats finally got the chance to charge ahead and set some things on fire as my War Pigs and Marines opened fire.

Mental note, Firebats perform wonderfully in setting things on fire, in such a manner that all it took was a single burst from the arm mounted flamethrowers to incinerate a single enemy Marine, armor, health points and all up in flames in three seconds before they moved onto the next target. In a Firebat vs. Firebat fight, turns out not only my superior number of Firebats overwhelmed the few that charged forward to meet my own, but seemed to outgun them thanks to all the upgrades my personal Firebats had, the ones I had rescued appeared to have default settings, if they made it back to base that would change.

The real magic happened when the last of the Rouge forces were wiped out and my Firebats went straight towards the Bunker that was spewing spikes and no flames, allowing my Firebats to soak up the damage while my Marines and War Pigs opened up from a safer distance. Flamethrowers vs. buildings however, now that was where having Firebats came in handy, it took five seconds for the Bunker to be destroyed and another second for the four unlucky occupants to find themselves without that protection of said Bunker, I could really get used to this.

I lost seven Marines and three Firebats, but those losses were easily negated when three War Pigs, 10 Marines and six Firebats stepped out of the cave, again no Sgt. Casari among them.

_"Lead the way Commander!"_

One checkpoint to go as I headed in that direction after absorbing the new troops, collecting four more Resource Caches, three minerals and one gas, all but skipping towards the final location on my mini-map because I should really go exploring more often if free stuff was just laying around.

Turns out the last checkpoint had a decent enemy presence, 30 Marines, 10 Firebats and two Bunkers sat outside of another cave that was receiving fire from all sides, enough to make me toggle Rally Cry and join the charge towards the bad guys, Impaler blazing the whole way.

This fight was more brutal than before, thanks to the superior range and firepower the bulk of my forces sported, not to mention the boost I gave all of them, both Bunkers were smashed in less than a second from the concentrated spikes and flamethrowers as the rest of the bad guys went down in a similar fashion, violently and quickly as the Rally Cry ran out once the last of them were put down. A good thing I had health packs for my personal troops, any unit that was in the red would automatically restore 25 health points, thankfully I only lost 11 Marines and four Firebats this time around as I stepped closer to the cave and prepared to greet this Sgt. Casari.

Of course, it wasn't meant to be.

Instead I got three War Pigs, 20 Marines and 10 Firebats, along with three mineral caches and two gas caches that appeared outside the cave, but no Sgt. Casari.

_"We lost contact with our platoon commander half an hour ago, last transmission stated that Sgt. Casari was a prisoner in a local base not far from here, we'll join up with you."_

Another waypoint appeared on my mini-map, mentally I thinking how many more hoops I was going to have to jump through in order to find this possible ally of mine as I set out, collecting all of the free loot and organizing my forces on the move.

With 73 Marines, 9 War Pigs and 17 Firebats under my command, I marched towards the last checkpoint, though about halfway I came across something unexpected.

Depots in the Rouge Terran color, all four of them were promptly destroyed as I kept heading in the obvious direction of where I needed to go, before I stumbled onto a Rouge Terran base of all things.

Four Bunkers, two Barracks, a dozen Depots, a Command Center and a building that I clearly didn't recognize, but if the waypoint targeting the building or the fact that my HUD identified it as a Prisoner Cell, I'm guessing that it was important to my mission of finding Sgt. Casari as I sent all of my troops to attack, kicking myself for using that Rally Cry earlier as I joined the slow advance towards the enemy line waiting for me.

I was mildly surprised that only a handful of Rouge Marines and a single set of Firebats were all that came to greet me as all four Bunkers opened fire, I divided my guys somewhat evenly up between them and punched in through the middle to head towards the Prisoner Cell sitting in front of the Command Center.

Once all four Bunkers were toast, literally, and the last of the enemy troops wiped out, I sent troops over to the Barracks before reinforcements could arrive and had everything else sporting Rouge colors torched as half a dozen SCVs made a ballsy charge towards me. A grenade easily cleared them up as I reached the Prisoner Cell and found a simple terminal waiting for me with a single command option flashing at me.

_Open?_

Yes please, I hit the command and took a step back as the door lowered like a drawbridge, revealing a single War Pig, four neutral SCVs and six regular Marines in that neutral grey.

_"Sgt. Casari reporting, thanks for the assist Commander, we'll follow you anywhere."_

My HUD decided now was a good time to provide me with a message and so I was forced to watch another video.

_…_

_Scanning, [ONE] Blue Force Terran Ally detected, configuring IFF_

_…_

_Sgt. Casari, D. Ex-War Pig Leader. History of neural re-socialization. Ex-prostitute. _

_Status: Ally Local leader, rescued from Rouge Terran base, can command up to 30 ground units, can utilize the use of Hand Grenades and Rally Cry, any Marine under her control is granted a +10% damage bonus_

_…_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [12 WAR PIGS] at Blue Force Terran Level [THREE]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Two_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE]_

_…_

Okay that was new, I gained a new ally and could use the Merc Compound for something other than looking pretty, along with the fact I now had an ally that could do things, such as throw hand grenades, use Rally Cry in the same manner I could and command a sizeable force, though I was really excited at the damage bonus she would grant any Marines under her influence, now that was interesting.

Sgt. Casari appeared a gold square on my HUD, I also noticed that the War Pigs showed up with a small gold star as well, there was a couple of commands I could issue for her as well, mostly similar to a regular Marine, except she had Rally Cry and Hand Grenade options, but for now I wanted a closer look.

As the cleanup of the Rouge Terran base was going on around me, I noticed that all of the Barracks were destroyed and my units were tearing through the Depots at a surprising rate while my Firebats were busy torching the Command Center.

_"Commander, Sgt. Casari reporting for duty sir."_

Sgt. Casari had come to a stop in front of me, the visor retracting up in order for me to see a pale face framed by blond locks of hair and hazel eyes as I simply waved at her, picking up an Impaler rifle laying on the ground and tossed it too her.

"We have work to do," I watched as the Command Center finally fell into a burning heap as a glowing Terran Research File bounced out of the wreckage, "take command of the remaining War Pigs and whatever Marines you can, search the area and report back to me."

She did just that as I ordered an SCV to collect the Terran Research File, worth 10 I might add, and sent the other three around to absorb the caches that also appeared in the wreckage of the Command Center and Barracks, watching as the last building, the only Refinery, go up in flames as the last of the Rouge Terran in this area vanished off my mini-map. This would make a good location for future mineral harvesting, I marked it on my map after losing count of nearly 40 mineral nodes and three geysers, the 5,000 minerals and 2,500 gas I just got was more than enough to start building a Command Center, but I wasn't about to dedicate something like that when I hadn't secured the area, having just destroyed the Bunkers protecting this place, a narrow entrance between two cliffs, making an ideal chokepoint.

That and my forces were low on ammunition, turns out ammo can be looted from the dead and from around destroyed Bunkers and Depots, but obviously not enough to fully resupply what was left of my force, which I also took stock of.

52 Marines, 8 War Pigs, 6 Firebats, 4 SCVs and Sgt. Casari were all that I had, well 36 of the Marines and the rest of the Firebats and SCVs were under my control, Sgt. Casari had the War Pigs and 22 of the Marines under her own command as I gave the order to return to my base, taking a slight detour along the way back to explore some more.

I gained an Ally, War Pigs, 10 Terran Research File points, 7,500 minerals and 4,000 gas for free, not bad for a single rescue mission it seems.

The return trip didn't turn up much, just more sand and signs of old battles that yielded nothing of value as we made it back to the base. Bunkers acted in the same manner of generating ammo and energy to friendly troops like Depots could, though the garrisoned units inside were automatically supplied with an unlimited supply, all of my returning troops topped off any ammunition and staged themselves around the ramps, right now I had work to do.

"Sgt. Casari, on me."

She left her units near the Bunkers and followed me to the Command Center, I was actually surprised that she could use the Suit Bay as well, revealing a rather slender woman in a full body jumpsuit and a pistol holster similar to mine as I led her to the elevator.

"This is the primary command hub of Blue Force," I was narrating as the elevator deposited both of us on the desired floor, "seeing as you are one of my allies, you have full access to the base, however you are limited to controlling combat units and aiding myself in combat as a personal bodyguard, meet the Adjutant."

She simply stepped in front of the Adjutant as a scanner ran over her body, completing a full bio scan, retina scan and DNA lock as the Adjutant whirred to life.

_Sgt. Casari, D. has been inputted into the data banks, welcome [COMMANDER'S ASSISTANT] it is good to meet you_

"Any questions?"

"What are your orders sir?" Surprisingly enough she had this faint accent to her voice that I couldn't place, speaking through amplified speakers really distorts one's voice as I took a moment to think.

"Your suit is currently undergoing retrofit for some time in order for improvements to be made, select a private quarters for yourself, eat, get cleaned up and take a few hours to catch up on sleep," I told her as I activated another terminal, "return to me when you have sufficiently rested."

She cut another salute and left the room as I browsed over the Factory terminal that appeared next to the Barracks terminal, fully intent to see what I had gained since I had been gone when everything locked out and a new message window appeared.

Even when I didn't have a visor in front of my face it seemed that Adjutant was going out of the way to get me with these new messages.

_…_

_Greetings Commander, welcome to your Allies and Learning Tutorial, the following information is important for you to know in order to improve overall effectiveness as Blue Force Terran Commander._

_You have now gained an Ally, records show that this particular Ally has undergone neural re-socialization, a necessary process in order to augment typical subordinate forces operating under the command of a Terran Commander. Namely it rewrites the brains pathways to accept mental conditioning and training regimens in the Terran military, providing faster and more effective time management when training and producing the large volume of troops required in such instances, as well as providing absolute obedience to all orders given by the Terran Commander._

_There have been many changes to the neural re-socialization process over the years, rendering the homicidal and aggressive tendencies in subjects of the past a moot subject, while also taking care to implement corrective behavior in subjects who naturally disagree or rebel against authority. This causes more damage to cohesive units and loss of manpower than is allowed, reverting those base mentalities underneath a carefully screened mental pathways that no longer allow such behavior to be dominate in combat or in the line of duty. Given that the majority of those selected for the neural re-socialization procedure have proven only to be liabilities, such as criminals, rebels, convicts, condemned murders and mentally unstable individuals, consideration has been taken into effect to avoid creating an army of thoughtless drones serving only those in command._

_Typical reward and praising pathways have been written into the mental configuration, thus allowing every subordinate to gain a sense of satisfaction and approval from the Terran Commander, avoiding negative emotions such as hate, jealousy or petty indifference that could prove harmful to overall function. In this manner it allows acceptable behavior to be sought when outside of combat or duty, be sure as the role of the Terran Commander in this relationship to positively reinforce your re-socialized subordinates in ways that are acceptable to the individual. _

_Logging you Commander_

_…_

I think I was going to throw up after I realized the implications when a short video clip ran on, scenes of a Terran Commander saluting assembled troops, sharing a beer with a squad, talking to others, looking out for others in small ways and even a scene that left no doubt in my mind that satisfaction was received from both parties as the video ended with a brief reminder that all neural re-socialization was permeant and could not be removed, yadda yadda.

Oh great, another message now what?

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Two to Level Three Complete_

_Requirements: 50/50 Hand Grenade Kills, 150/150 Rifle Kills, 500/500 Confirmed Kills, 1/1 Rescued Allies, 3/2 Commander Research Upgrades, 3/3 Boss Kills_

_…_

_Rewards: 100 HP, +.5 HP Recovery Rate, +15 Energy, +50 Personal Shields with recovery rate of 25 points per minute, +1 Armor, +1 Ally_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Power Armor Sprint=10 meter range 15 Energy cost, Power Armor Hand Grenade=1 HE Grenade 15 Energy cost, Detector=Passive skill_

_Health: 350 HP: 1 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +3_

_Energy: 80/80: Recharge rate 5 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 100/100: Recharge rate 25 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 0/75 Hand Grenade Kills, 0/300 Rifle Kills, 0/1,000 Confirmed Kills, 1/3 Rescued Allies, 3/5 Commander Research Points, 0/6 Boss Kills, 0/1 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 37/50 Depots, 89/100 SCVs, 191/200 Marines, 23/50 Firebats, 0/10 Vultures, 7/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 4/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 4/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 14/30 Terran Research Files, 1/1 Rescued Allies, 4/2 Barracks, 1/3 Command Centers, 1/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

Nice to know, well I put the more disturbing thoughts out of my head and got back to doing what I had intended to do in the first place, namely seeing what other forces I had available now that the Factory was completed.

I could now build Vultures, each costing a whopping 125 minerals and 75 gas with a 15 minute build time as well, I put in an order for 20 of them with Adjutant as I checked on the Merc Compound terminal to see what I had available.

Turns out War Pigs were now available, however there was actually a population cap for Terran Level Three, turns out I can afford to have exactly 12 War Pigs at this time, each shipment of 4 War Pigs cost 250 minerals, 100 gas with a cool down period of one hour before the next batch could be called, though I would only be able to call once unless I lost a bunch of War Pigs. Being the curious sort of fella, I decided to see how troops from the Merc Compound would arrive, so I placed a rally point in front of the Command Center and ordered for a single reinforcement and watched on the monitor screen.

Nothing happened for about ten seconds before a single drop pod came screaming from the sky, hit the ground with a thump, broke apart on landing to reveal four brand new War Pigs ready to go, turns out they would be coming from orbit instead of being built from the facility like I initially thought, sweet.

Couldn't do anything about Firebat or Vulture mercenaries yet, I had a sneaky suspicion that locating more Allies was going to be a requirement, because I rescued a Marine and was rewarded with War Pigs, I think the same would happen if I found other Allies, unless I wound up rescuing fifty Marine Allies instead, wouldn't be that bad actually.

Turns out that I had some more upgrades waiting for me at the Science Facility, they had just appeared instead of being the tier two upgrades I really wanted to get upgraded before it got dark tonight, so I decided to check them out.

_U-238 Shells: Grants Marines -1 Armor bonus to weapon, allowing the rounds to pass through 1 layer of armor without losing damage points, cost 300 minerals, 150 gas and 3 hours research time._

_Napalm: Firebat extensive upgrades, adds another +10 damage to structure and +8 damage to enemy ground units, cost 300 minerals, 100 gas and 3 hours research time._

Both were immediately placed in the research queue, I had the resources to spare and if they finished before it got dark, even better as I decided to improve my defenses.

First I had six Bunkers begin construction at the bottom of the ramps, formed in a half circle to defend against attacks from three different directions, close enough that Firebats could incinerate hostiles attacking the Bunker next to each other and far enough away from the bottom of the ramps for room to mass troops and leave future building options. Another thing I learned was that Bunkers could be built on the slope of the ramps themselves, this was news as I ordered two Bunkers to be built on each ramp halfway up, close to the edges to leave a center lane down the center.

That project cost me 1,000 minerals and before I could stop myself, I ordered three more Command Centers to be built in the back of my base so they were protected and out of the way, I almost cried at the sudden drop of resources if it wasn't for the fact that I had plans in place to gain it all back, with interest possibly.

First I was content to wait a few hours and build my forces, defenses and wait for Sgt. Casari to recover as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Power Armor Sprint=10 meter range 15 Energy cost, Power Armor Hand Grenade=1 HE Grenade 15 Energy cost, Detector=Passive skill_

_Health: 350 HP: 1 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +3_

_Energy: 80/80: Recharge rate 5 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 100/100: Recharge rate 25 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 0/75 Hand Grenade Kills, 0/300 Rifle Kills, 0/1,000 Confirmed Kills, 1/3 Rescued Allies, 3/5 Commander Research Points, 0/6 Boss Kills, 0/1 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 56/50 Depots, 108/100 SCVs, 245/200 Marines, 65/50 Firebats, 5/10 Vultures, 9/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 4/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 4/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 14/30 Terran Research Files, 1/1 Rescued Allies, 4/2 Barracks, 1/3 Command Centers, 1/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 3,000_

_Gas: 2,160_

_Supply: 425/570_

_…_

It was another four hours before Sgt. Casari was upright, turns out a benefit of the neural re-socialization that less sleep was required, guess I could avoid looking that gift horse in the mouth after I got suited up and headed outside.

There was another 13 hours of daylight left and I intended to use it.

My additional Bunkers were completed and filled with 3 Marines to 1 Firebat as per usual, at least one upgrade was finished with my Marines receiving said U-238 Shells upgrades, it turns out that War Pigs can get it as well, being the same weapon and all.

"Feel like going for a stroll Sgt. Casari?" I asked as I lead the way with 50 Marines, 10 Firebats, 5 SCVs and 3 Vultures as she followed with 12 War Pigs and 18 Marines.

_Of course sir, what is our destination?_

"We'll know it when we see it, watch my left flank and keep me notified if case you spot anything."

I had been initially upset when it turns out that I don't get my own supped up Vulture to drive around and I can't operate any of the Vultures I have built anyway, turns out the pilot isn't simply a guy astride a motorcycle kind of ride, the pilot sits in a cockpit that belongs on Formula One racecar, so there is no way I can fit inside with my power armor. Another thing I learned was that Vultures couldn't simply make more Spider Mines no that ability was locked out until the proper research was done, so I had my Vultures plant all of their mines around the Bunkers at the top of the ramps.

In the event the other 10 Bunkers were taken out, the last line of four Bunkers would have a nasty surprise waiting for whatever came within flamethrower range, because in my mind it made no sense to drop random mines around when enemy forces would be coming to that one place at night anyway.

I decided to go north, right from the ramps thank you very much in case you were wondering as I set out, using my Vultures acting as a scout force out in front of my formation as Sgt. Casari brought up the flank to my left, because I had a sheer cliff to my right it made sense to stretch out what forces I had in order to cover as much ground as possible. That was the theory anyway, I had given Sgt. Casari explicit instructions to recover any Resource Caches, report any hostile activities and to notify me of any planted beacons that would signify Commander Missions.

Turns out that in order for me to personally reach level four, I needed to perform some kind of special mission, the only data Adjutant had on the subject was to simply follow the instructions on a flashing beacon, so another form of treasure hunting on this little outing I was currently leading, so I was doing four things at once.

Mapping out the area around my base, searching for bad guys, looking for beacons and possibly finding any Allies as well, that and if I managed to wipe out an enemy base, I brought along a couple SCVs to gather up the research points and to repair my Vultures when they got hurt.

I wanted to know was north (right) of my base, the entire south portion had belonged to the Rouge Terran and the center was farther away, it would only be a matter of time before attacks would be coming to my base. To circumvent that from happening, I decided to clear out the immediate area around my base before nightfall, if I was lucky I could find another Ally and wipe out an enemy base at the least, find some free resource caches or research points if I was lucky.

The odds of finding something was pretty good, if anything it was only a matter of time until I ran into something, friendly, hostile, freebie or whatnot it didn't really matter to be honest as long as it was something.

Turns out it was a little more than something.

_Commander, I've come in contact with Protoss sir, three of them Zealots._

I paused to listen, the rest of the formation coming to a halt, I hadn't been paying that much attention to my mini-map either because we had moved into an area with dense brush that obscured vision until units stepped through it, perfect for ambushing.

"Any casualties?"

_Negative sir, I am proceeding with caution._

"Let me know if you encounter anything else Sgt." I hefted my rifle up and kept walking.

The next Protoss encounter was between six Zealots and one of my Vultures scouting out ahead, once it came under attack I ordered it to come back to me as the rest of my formation surged ahead to meet this new threat.

The battered Vulture came into view, smoke pouring off it as the telltale scars from psi blades visible on the sides as one of my SCVs got to work repairing it with a plasma welder.

I ordered the formation to halt, noticing that Sgt. Casari had moved her troops into position next to mine as I decided to wait.

Sure enough, chaos ensued when the first Zealot came stumbling out of the bushes as my Marines and Vultures got the first shot off, I was surprised that the vehicle borne grenade launchers had enough power to send a single Zealot flying into the air before it hit the ground, taking a couple seconds to recover and start towards my troops, shields gone and most of its health shredded from the grenade as a random burst to the head put it down for good this time.

Because the bushes were so close, my Firebats took five steps forward and ignited their flamethrowers with a loud whooshing sound as first the Zealots burst into flames, then the nearby bushes and then it started a wildfire.

"All units pull back, let the fire burn itself out," I ordered as my troops did just that, last thing I wanted was for my own guys to wind up inside of a raging bonfire, "keep an eye out for counterattacks."

After about a minute the fire started dying down, the blaze having lost the initial fuel to spread beyond the closely bunched up bushes instead of setting the entire place on fire, the good news was that with all of the bushes out of the way, the visual range of all my units was no longer an issue.

"Sgt. Casari, make a note that Firebats should not be weapon's free in environments that proved to be a hazard to things other than the enemy."

_Noted sir._

"We'll move up after it dies down, though I expect whoever those Zealots belonged to know exactly where to find us." I spotted something on my mini-map and cursed.

_Enemy Protoss inbound Commander._

"I can see that, all units open fire!"

Charging towards me through the smoke was about 20 or so Zealots spread out over a wide area, psi blades glowing brightly as the first rank went down to one knee as the other four ranks brought their rifles up, the Firebats were just standing there because they were not allowed to break formation to chase after targets as my Vultures were the first to open fire.

Turns out they could lob grenades over my formation of troops, which was useful to know because the last thing I needed was friendly fire taking out a bunch of my own guys. The grenades they were firing were landing either in front of an individual Zealot or in-between a pair of them, taking out large portions of the energy shields these Zealots were packing, like three times of what I had on my own suit, wondered if I upgraded the Protoss research option I could make it higher?

Sgt. Casari and her troops handled what few Zealots heading for them, but a bulk of the advancing Zealots were coming straight for me and my guys, well I had plenty of guys with rifles and a couple with flamethrowers too, that and Vultures with twice the attack range of my Marines, made things a lot easier.

_That's the last of them Commander, should we push on?_

"An excellent idea Sgt. Who knows if there are more of them ahead."

Moving forward, I glanced at the dead Zealots on my way past, my HUD logging information, mostly how much shields, armor and effectiveness of their psi blades could be against my troops, hopefully there wasn't going to be that many where I was going.

Again, it turns out I was wrong, I should really stop jinxing myself if this was how it was going to be.

_"Commander, a priority distress signal has been detected, shall I play it?"_

"Go ahead Adjutant, I have a feeling this is going to be important." I kept walking along, noticing bodies other than Zealots, some neutral Terran Marines were mixed in amongst them, now this was interesting.

Another message window appeared on my HUD, it had a set of erratic vitals, a name that I didn't bother reading just yet and that signal bar as the message was piped over my speakers.

_"This is Lt. Hismallen of the 63__rd__ Scout Corps, my squad and I are pinned down by a bunch of those creepy Protoss guys and we could really use the help, sending coordinates."_

A waypoint appeared on my HUD and I turned towards it, the cool thing about my visor was that it could show the waypoint if I blinked at my mini-map a couple times and this waypoint was way off in that direction and a couple dozen feet above my head.

"Double time!" I broke into a run, the waypoint wasn't even that far, sure enough a cliff appeared in front of me as I took my guys around to the right and sent Sgt. Casari around to the left.

It was a small plateau with a single ramp leading up, said ramp was decorated with multiple Protoss and Terran corpses as well, though Sgt. Casari beat me to the ramp first and got to wipe out five Zealots and a single Probe looking thing that had been getting ready to warp something in, what I had no idea because the vortex of glowing blue light wasn't identified on my HUD fast enough for that.

I took the lead up the ramp, finding 10 Marines, 4 Firebats and two Vultures that had a second grenade launcher mounted onto it.

_"Thanks for the rescue, the eel-t went off that way some time ago to locate the other squads, we'll be happy to join with ya if you want."_

I…didn't recognize what these thing were supposed to be, "What are you?"

_"We be what you call Vandals sir, guns for hire that the eel-t brought on for this mission."_

Mercenary level Vultures? Oh fuck yeah.

"Welcome to join, now lets go find your missing leader."

Once they all changed color and integrated with my own troops, I had both Vandals Follow Sgt. Casari, even though she couldn't command them because her queue was full already, they could still be close by and lend whatever fire support they had as I waited for the three waypoints to appear, which they did sure enough.

"Sgt. Casari you will take that waypoint," I looked at one of the waypoints off to my left so it was highlighted, "and I will take this one, we'll meet up at the last one."

_Roger that sir, Marines move out!_

I figured that this would be another goose chase, find another couple of Mercs and friendly units before taking out the base in hopes to rescue the Ally, who was probably going to be a Vulture pilot if I wasn't mistaken.

The good news was that eight resource caches were picked up between myself and Sgt. Casari on our way to the first waypoints, I was surprised to find myself coming upon a small battlefield with 30 Zealots rushing towards a thicket of bushes, where the occasional burst of Impaler fire and that odd grenade would come soaring out of, how they were able to see beyond the bushes was beyond me.

Until I watched for another three seconds.

Something popped out of the dirt in front of the lead Zealot, my first thought was that it had to be a Zergling or something because Protoss didn't have things that would burrow, cloak and teleport yes, dig out of the ground not so much. It was then the little thing skittered across the ground towards the nearest Zealot and exploded in a spectacular fireball, obliterating four Zealots and knocking another two backwards.

So that was how a Spider Mine worked, interesting.

Seeing as how I was about to rescue some Vultures, it was only right for the Vultures to shoot first before my Marines and then my Firebats got to play as the attacking Zealots made an abrupt right hand turn and came charging towards me, lovely. Another Spider Mine got activated just as the Protoss finished the turn, taking one Zealot and knocking four of them back as the Zealots crashed into my formation.

As in literally crashed, other than the Zerg I've fought at night, all my opponents up until now had been ranged fighters, so it came as a bit of a surprise to watch a nine foot golden warrior to run head first into a line of combined Marines and Firebats, slashing those dangerous psi blades around as they did. As much as I wanted to activate Rally Cry and let the Protoss have it, there was still a base around here somewhere I intended to wipe out in order to rescue my latest Ally.

I personally bagged two Zealots with my rifle, think I'm getting better at this to be honest, when my HUD warned me of an incoming message.

_Commander, I've secured eight Marines and two Vandals and are having them follow me for now, ten dead Zealots and some minor scuffs to report._

"Good to know, I'll meet you at the next waypoint." I took a step backwards to avoid having a Zealot drop dead on my toes, fifty rounds to the face and now it died, sheezh I was going to need more ammo before this day was over.

I lost two Firebats and a single Marine, unfortunate yes, but those Zealots had a wicked one-two attack at close range, the good news was the rest of the Zealots were taken out and I could move closer to the hidden neutral guys.

My detector came in handy for spotting the remaining two Spider Mines, I simply skirted around them and stepped through the bushes praying that I wasn't about to get shot in the face or something.

Big sigh of relief when I found 12 Marines, 3 regular Vultures and two of those Vandals sitting next to a couple resource caches, ha success!

_"Need some more guns sir?"_

"I'll take all I can get." They joined my guys as I set out towards the last waypoint, which I was willing to bet that had some more either trapped or besieged neutral guys instead of this Lt. Hismallen guy, had to be a Vulture jockey or something similar.

Along the way I found another three resource caches and joined up with Sgt. Casari, taking the extra troops off her hands, but had all four Vandals follow her so they would stay safe.

97 Marines, 12 War Pigs, 5 Vultures, 12 Firebats, 6 Vandals and 5 SCVs would make a Hell of an entrance no matter which way you looked at it, hopefully there wasn't going to be an army waiting for me, oh Hell I need to stop doing that as the last waypoint came into view.

Instead of any neutral Terran forces fighting back, I was surprised to find a single Protoss Pylon and three Photon Cannons with a handful of Zealots at the edge of an old battlefield, covered in mostly Terran corpses.

"Adjutant, any sign of Lt. Hismallen?"

_"Negative Commander, Protoss signals jamming any possible attempt at locating Lt. Hismallen."_

Really…

"Hold that thought Adjutant," I waved my free hand forward, "all units, burn those things to the ground."

A Photon Cannon was the equivalent of a Terran Bunker and a Missile Turret in that regard, a fixed position defensive cannon that operated by simply detecting anything moving into range, priming a plasma charge, directing said charge through a telescoping pole with a nozzle looking thing on the end and letting it loose. This of course translated into a ball of superheated plasma the size of a bowling ball flying towards you with enough kinetic energy to travel at 3,000 meters a second before introducing a ball of superheated plasma into the scenario.

It was painful to watch as a Marine went down from just two hits from these things, the worse news was that these things were heavily shielded as well and that took time to whittle down before the structure itself could be annihilated, though Firebats have proven highly effective when it came to draining energy shields and Marines were known for high rates of fire at moderate ranges and Vultures could drop grenades over the top of friendly troops with devastating accuracy.

11 Marines and 3 Firebats were destroyed before the last Photon Cannon was taken out, the Pylon lasted another ten seconds before it too exploded into a vortex of unstable energy and dissipated into nothingness.

The waypoint had been placed exactly where the Pylon had been sitting, yet there wasn't a single neutral Terran anywhere, a live one that is before my HUD beeped.

_"Commander, high resolution communication has been detected from a nearby Protoss stronghold, it is possible that Lt. Hismallen is located there."_

"Coordinates?" I was rewarded with another waypoint appearing on my mini-map, show time.

"Sgt. Casari, when I give you the order, I want you to activate your Rally Cry, target anything that attacks you first, find and locate Lt. Hismallen by all means, how copy?" I broke into a run to keep up as the first Photon Cannon came into view.

_Roger that Commander_

By now two Photon Cannons and 10 Zealots came into view, I activated my own Rally Cry and sent my troops forward, aware that this would get them killed, but the reward was smashing through what I hoped to be the only defense this base had. There were a total of 7 Photon Cannons and 20 Zealots waiting for me, the good news that the cannons were down as my Rally Cry ran out of steam.

"Now!"

Sgt. Casari and her troops barreled past, blasting a swath right through the Zealots and surrounding the only Gateway I could see as other Pylons came under fire, though the Gateway fell first before two more structures came into view.

One was obviously a Protoss Nexus, the other was a strange looking circular building that was designated as a Stasis Pod on my HUD, so odds were that whoever it was I was looking for would be sitting in there waiting for me to open the door.

When the last Probe was put down, those things had a mean laser cutter of some kind because one of them got close enough to scorch my foot before I reloaded, I hobbled over to see how I was going to open the Stasis Pod while Sgt. Casari lead an effective assault against the Nexus sitting in the background.

Something activated after I stepped closer, causing a door to appear on a solid wall and 12 Marines, a single Vulture and two SCVs to come out.

_"That was a close save Commander, Lt. Hismallen at your service, you tell me where and I'll blaze a trail."_

I just nodded as another Ally appeared on my HUD, turns out it was a Vulture alright as I turned to watch the rest of the Protoss base fall.

"Today is a good day."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Power Armor Sprint=10 meter range 15 Energy cost, Power Armor Hand Grenade=1 HE Grenade 15 Energy cost, Detector=Passive skill_

_Health: 350 HP: 1 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +3_

_Energy: 80/80: Recharge rate 5 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 100/100: Recharge rate 25 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 0/75 Hand Grenade Kills, 7/300 Rifle Kills, 87/1,000 Confirmed Kills, 2/3 Rescued Allies, 3/5 Commander Research Points, 0/6 Boss Kills, 0/1 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 56/50 Depots, 108/100 SCVs, 242/200 Marines, 63/50 Firebats, 10/10 Vultures, 9/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 4/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 14/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 14/30 Terran Research Files, 2/1 Rescued Allies, 4/2 Barracks, 1/3 Command Centers, 1/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 14,120_

_Gas: 8,160_

_Supply: 425/570_

_…_

_Scanning, [ONE] Blue Force Terran Ally detected, configuring IFF_

_…_

_Lt. Hismallen, D. Codenamed Buzzard. Confederate Vulture pilot. Volunteer._

_Status: Local leader, rescued from Rouge Protoss base, commands up to 25 ground units, granting any Vultures under his command a +10% attack rate and +5 Spider Mines, able to use Rally Cry and Booster (grants Vultures 50% movement buff for 30 seconds) _

_…_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [12 WAR PIGS] at Blue Force Terran Level [THREE]_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [6 VANDALS] at Blue Force Terran Level [THREE]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE]_

_…_

As much as I wanted to head back to base, I decided to press on and find the Zerg somewhere in that dark splotch smack dab in the middle of the area between the areas I cleared out and directly in front of my base. Because at the rate I was going, I would at least recover a third Ally, odds were that it was going to be a Firebat or something like that, had to be, that and I hadn't found anything remotely resembling a beacon yet either.

After a long look at my new Ally here, turns out he has a similar effect on any Vulture under his command, adds an additional 5 Spider Mines, now that I could use, all I got to do is unlock the required research so I can create an unlimited supply of them, that would make any kind of assault on my base interesting for ground troops to say the least. That and I had crazy amounts of resources from all the caches I've found, not to mention what I hope is enough Protoss Chrystal Shards to make a difference, but it would either require another night or some more destroyed bases in order to reach the number I needed just to meet the level requirements, talk about a real pain in the ass.

So instead of calling it a day and heading back to base, I took what I had and pressed on, intent on finding something to be worth my time, a Zerg base would be nice, a third Ally (so betting on a Firebat) or both at once if I was lucky enough.

With Sgt. Casari leading her usual band of War Pigs and Marines, I put all of the Vandals and Vultures under Lt. Hismallen's command along with a dozen Marines for support, as much as I wanted him to race around scouting, I wanted him to have enough firepower to at least even the odds. One thing I learned however was that the grenade launcher each Vulture packed was slow firing and prone to be inaccurate while they were moving, of course Lt. Hismallen and his Vandals had dual grenade launchers each so that wasn't a problem.

Against small numbers of slow moving targets such as Zealots or Marines that was fine, but from what I could remember, Vultures didn't have the best track record against a Zerg Rush, even in large numbers they lacked the firing rate required to take on multiple waves of agile enemies that overwhelmed through sheer numbers. Hopefully by having a squad of Marines, the Vultures could act as impromptu Marauders and provide fire support while the Marines chewed through whatever was attacking them, I decided to keep the Firebats with me, if Zerg was on the menu, then I figured I would be doing a bulk of the fighting with the other two to run interference for me.

The great thing about Vultures against melee ranged enemies was that they didn't have to worry about getting shot at whenever they spotted a bunch of Zerglings, so Lt. Hismallen simply had his Vultures and Vandals running ahead of my main formation, locating a bunch of Zerglings and charging back towards my troops after lobbing a few grenades to piss off the Zerg and get them to chase, which would lead them to a couple ranks of waiting Firebats and Marines.

In comparison of speed between a couple of angry Zerglings and a Vulture, even an unmodified bare bones variant, Vulture wins hands down, it was almost down to a science that the scouts would report hostile Zerg, race past the formation, get turned around and fire off a couple grenades to shave off a few before racing back ahead, barreling past the attacking Zerglings, which accomplished two things.

First it confused the Zerglings into forgetting all about the guys with rifles and flamethrowers for about half a second into thinking they could attack the Vulture, so by the time they realized the Vulture was long gone and turned around to go back to slaughtering the other guys, most of them were either already chopped kibble or extra crispy by then. The second thing it do was look really cool, I think the Vulture pilots were actually in a competition to see which one of them could knock aside the most Zerglings like they were bowling pins, kind of funny to watch.

_"Commander, a priority distress message has been detected west of your position, would you like to play it?"_

"Go ahead Adjutant, Lt. get ready to move out when you receive coordinates."

_"This is Cpl. Hanov with what few survivors I've managed to round up, pinned down by the Zerg, intel dropped the ball because they weren't supposed to be in this area, any friendly forces listening to this message please respond with immediate assistance."_

Once the waypoint appeared it was game time folks as Lt. Hismallen and his guys took off, the Marines under his control getting left behind as I put them under my control and followed after them.

"Lend whatever assistance you can, all forces move to support." Guess I was getting the hang of this commander thing as we all took off at a sprint or full blown afterburners.

Youch, okay about a dozen Firebats standing at the base of a ramp in a natural depression, trapped without anywhere to go, doing their best at barbequing an endless stream of Zerglings heading towards them as grenades courtesy of a couple Vulture hover bikes made them rethink the error of their ways.

Sgt. Casari moved in immediately as I swung around the other side to catch the Zerg in a crossfire, last thing I needed was for the Zerglings to charge one mass of troops, in those numbers they could do some real damage. Fried Zerg does not smell pleasant at all, but this is where Firebats were allowed to shine, it was like Zerglings roasted a lot faster than Rouge Marines, they lacked those pesky energy shields as well, making it infinitely easier to burn the little bastards.

With the last of Zerglings turned to ash, I walked down the ramp to say hello and see what I got this time, guess it would be too much to ask for Cpl. Hanov to be here in the flesh rather than having to run around searching for him?

_"Thought we were going to be mincemeat there for a moment sir, Cpl. Hanov went on ahead to locate the others, but we've lost contact with him, need some help scorching a few Zerg sir?"_

Figures.

"Sure, why not," I looked a little closer and realized that 10 of them were regular Firebats and two of them were a lot bigger, a little taller and packing some seriously wicked looking gauntlets, "I can use a couple Devil Dogs where I'm going."

Sure enough the mandatory three waypoints appeared and I was tempted to divide and conquer, really tempted, but I just had this feeling you know? Like that would blow up in my face because when I dealt with the Rouge Terran and Rouge Protoss, they were predictable almost to a fault, meaning they could only have a certain number of units together at a time, too many and they just got in the way of each other. Marines had to have space so they could get within range and attack, if the Marine behind the first couldn't shoot that far they would have to move around the first one in order to do so, causing problems if there were more than twenty of them at once.

Zealots on the other hand had to get in close, but with being a shielded warrior needing just a little bit of room to swing around some psi blades, that meant they couldn't attack in large numbers against small groups of enemies because that would cause them to bunch up.

Zerglings on the other hand, from what little I've seen so far, don't have that problem because they lack any kind of ranged attack and operate with a swarm mentality, making them far more efficient in such attacks as Zerg Rushes and close quarters fights in large numbers. I'd reckon that I could visit all three waypoints in small groups without a problem, but I had a feeling that the losses from such repeated attacks would hinder my final attack on the Zerg base.

The first waypoint held 6 Firebats, 10 Marines and 2 Devil Dogs standing in the middle of an ashen field, something tells me that there used to be a bunch of bushes that had been set on fire some time ago as the attacking Zerglings were heading towards them in that dogged fashion without a single shred of self-preservation in mind.

"Advance forward slowly, they rush just fall back and regroup," the last part was directed towards my Firebats and Devil Dogs for now, some of them bore scars previous scars from the Protoss earlier, having run ahead farther to burn something and winding up outside the range of the Marines without cover fire, "we take it slow and steady."

_Roger that Commander_

_We hear yeah boss_

"Attack!"

Turns out I was sort of right, easily 50 Zerglings popped out of the ground when my troops moved into range and made things hairy for a second, then they were bathed in a good dousing of fire before a swift helping of spikes and grenades were applied as well, I refrained from tossing grenades myself because I was going to need the energy for later.

Scrapped by that fight without losing anyone, had a couple utilize the health pack they carried to tide them over, man I really wish I had a couple Medics right about now, this wasn't a fight of where the superior firepower mattered or ranged weapons brought to the fight either, this was a fight of attrition, one where superior numbers won the battle.

How it they say, that quantity has a quality of its own?

_Lead the way sir_

Waypoint number two, now that was new, instead of the bottom of a depression or standing on the ground, this bunch was up on top of a couple of rocks, almost like a couple of treed cats, if cats carried flamethrowers and machine guns to shoot at a horde of dogs intent on tearing them limb from limb.

This time I lost 3 Marines and 2 Firebats, a Vulture had a few dings in it until an SCV applied a quick patch job almost immediately, but I gained 2 Devil Dogs, 12 Firebats and 5 Marines instead as they quickly joined and we moved on to the last waypoint.

The second a purple carpet came into view, I knew this fight was going to suck, as my Vultures moved forward to get a better look I got to encounter my first taste of Zerg defensive structures.

A three foot tall spike shot out of the ground and almost impaled the lead most Vulture, instead knocking it to the side and doing a couple points of damage as I gave the order to attack.

A single Sunken Colony and 30 Zerglings were able to kill 4 Firebats and 2 Marines, the Vultures really helped with their armor and grenade launchers, not to mention the fact that the SCVs were repairing them as fast as they were getting attacked, I really want Medics now.

The good news was the 10 Firebats, 8 Marines and 2 Devil Dogs stepped out of a small cave with a cheer as they joined in, now I was ready for the last waypoint as Adjutant sent me a message.

_"It appears that a single distress beacon was activated not far from your current position, likelihood of it being Cpl. Hanov highly likely."_

"Good enough for me." I shifted the troops around, putting the maximum number of Marines under Lt. Hismallen's control and sending individual Firebats to follow War Pigs, Marines under Lt. Hismallen and took stock of my forces.

The thing I learned about Rally Cry so far was that it didn't affect every unit under control of the one initiating the Rally Cry, it seemed that the range was that of the sight range, so I would spread my leaders out in order to maximize the effective coverage of say three Rally Cry power ups?

Creep was spongey and made me feel really uncomfortable walking across, like I was about to get motion sickness from just standing on it, but I didn't have a choice and instead kept going, praying that I could keep my lunch down and ignore the effects as the first Sunken Colony came into view.

"Lt. if you would be so kind." I waited until the first Rally Cry triggered, the Vultures suddenly becoming automatic grenade launchers on overdrive with a token force of amped up Marines and those Firebats surging ahead to greet the oncoming wave of Zerglings.

"Sgt. Casari take the center, activate Rally Cry." It was satisfying to watch a bunch of Marines and their mercenary counterparts with some Firebats along for the ride charge forward to take on a pair of Sunken Colonies, thus leaving me with three more off to the left.

I had slightly farther range than either Sgt. Casari or Lt. Hismallen did, which allowed the majority of my troops to be affected and therefore increasing the overall number of amped up Marines and Firebats, an interesting fact was that my SCVs were also zipping around repairing my Vultures with blinding speed, hopefully they didn't try taking on Zerglings or some foolish nonsense, I was going to need them.

_419…350…281…137…65…000_

Sure was nice to watch Zerglings explode like that, that and watching those damn Sunken Colonies wither and die under a hail of spikes and fire, the way they dealt an subterranean attack like that made it impossible to avoid, you couldn't tell where it was going to attack until it was too late.

It was terrifying when a bunch of giant floating blimps drifted into view, for about a second I thought they were some kind of Zerg attack flier and was halfway done shooting them all down before I realized that they were just Overlords, pretty much harmless as I decided to ignore them for now and looked around.

Sitting in front of the obvious Hatchery was something I didn't recognize, my HUD identified it as an Infestation Pool and I couldn't attack it, so that must be where my newest Ally was going to be found.

Rather than press a button or wait for a door to open, I simply followed the instruction on my HUD to shoot a single tentacle hanging out of the pool and watch as the level of goo dropped and the sides of the pool lowering into the ground.

Spilling out of the side in an almost comical fashion was 6 Firebats, 10 Marines, 2 SCVs, a couple of Resource Caches and a really big Firebat that looked like a Devil Dog if it wasn't for the different color scheme as it shook itself off and stepped in front of me, scrapping whatever it was off the nozzles on its arms.

_Thank for the assist Commander, though they had us for sure that time, Cpl. Hanov reporting for duty sir, just point me in the right direction._

And just like that I had another Ally, yep he was a Firebat and it appeared that I could use another form of mercenaries, Devil Dogs, now those would be useful.

Speaking of which I decided to do a head count and almost winced when I got a final tally.

15 Marines, 8 Firebats, 3 Devil Dogs, 1 Vulture and 1 SCV were killed in this assault, I did however gain the 10 Zerg Bio Sample points and all of the resource caches from the destroyed Spawning Pool and Hatchery as well. It was kind of sobering that the only real reason more troops didn't get wiped out was due to the upgrades I've unlocked so far, that and the amount of firepower I brought to this fight, it was just that Zerg took fighting to a whole new level.

After scouting out the last of the Zerg base and generally filling in the edges of the map until nothing but a solid ring of cliffs surrounded the area, except for one spot.

Just beyond the Rouge Zerg base was a ramp leading upwards, the amount of rubble was astonishing and I found out that nothing could harm it, a couple grenades from a Vulture and some spikes could attest to that as I looked a little closer. In front of the rubble on the ground was a glowing circle not much bigger than manhole cover, as much as I wanted to investigate it, I decided that I would deal with it later for several reasons.

If it was a Commander Mission, then it would be a really bad idea to charge into it with less than a thousand rounds and half energy, most of my Marines reported that they were down to either the last mag or less than that, most of my Firebats across the board had a quarter tank left of fuel and my Vultures had less than a hundred grenades worth of materials for the fabricators to make. That and with less than 4 hours left until it got dark, who knew how long a Commander Mission would last as I decided to turn around and head back to base, take care of some more bosses at night and wait until tomorrow morning before tackling that job.

"All units, return to base, it's going to be dark soon and we're low on ammo." I organized the troops outside of my command to head back as my allies grabbed whatever they could and marched them back.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Power Armor Sprint=10 meter range 15 Energy cost, Power Armor Hand Grenade=1 HE Grenade 15 Energy cost, Detector=Passive skill_

_Health: 350 HP: 1 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +3_

_Energy: 80/80: Recharge rate 5 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 100/100: Recharge rate 25 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 3/75 Hand Grenade Kills, 34/300 Rifle Kills, 251/1,000 Confirmed Kills, 3/3 Rescued Allies, 3/5 Commander Research Points, 0/6 Boss Kills, 0/1 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 62/50 Depots, 111/100 SCVs, 270/200 Marines, 68/50 Firebats, 12/10 Vultures, 9/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 14/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 14/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 14/30 Terran Research Files, 3/1 Rescued Allies, 4/2 Barracks, 1/3 Command Centers, 1/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 23,500_

_Gas: 16,460_

_Supply: 427/585_

_…_

_Scanning, [ONE] Blue Force Terran Ally detected, configuring IFF_

_…_

_Cpl. Hanov, C. Codenamed Demon. Dominion Firebat. Volunteer._

_Status: Local leader, rescued from Rouge Zerg base, can command up to 25 ground units, granting any Firebats under his command a 40% attack boost, can use Rally Cry and Maelstrom (Firebats only, 60% of received damaged is ignored for 20 seconds) _

_…_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [12 WAR PIGS] at Blue Force Terran Level [THREE]_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [6 VANDALS] at Blue Force Terran Level [THREE]_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [6 DEVIL DOGS] at Blue Force Terran Level [THREE]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

Once we got back to the base, I made sure everyone got refueled and rearmed and put into position, I wasn't going to risk going after that Commander Mission until tomorrow morning when I would have an entire day ahead of me to take care of that, tonight I was going to bag some Night Bosses, earn some more research points and get some z's before gallivanting off to see what kind of mission I had to do.

Turns out the Command Center has a Vehicle Bay, similar to the Suit Bay for my Allies to use when I called for a pow-wow with the Adjutant after we got back to base, sure was nice to know that a bunch of Bunkers and an lot of troops had things covered, mostly I had to put Cpl. Hanov and Lt. Hismallen into the system first, then I would strategize.

Lt. Hismallen turns out to have prosthetic legs, if only more advanced to the point I never would have thought they were fake until he had to roll up his pant legs to show Adjutant that he wasn't smuggling contraband into the Command Center. He was shorter than me and had this mop of dirty blonde hair I just wanted to either bleach or die it brown just because it was that color that just wasn't blond or brown, sounds gay I know, but deal with it.

Cpl. Hanov on the other hand was this taller brick shithouse kind of guy that just reeked of flamethrower fuel, even though he had left his suit downstairs and he was smoking a cigar of all things, it was like he was permanently drenched in the stuff and I was honestly afraid that the man was going to self-combust or something from all the fumes wafting off him.

"Alright everyone gather around," I waited as they approached the main holo-table in front of the Adjutant, "we have a simple defense to coordinate tonight."

"Here," I had a 3D projection courtesy of Adjutant on display of the area surrounding the ramps where the Bunkers and the bulk of my current forces were hanging out, "is going to be where the majority of the action taking place tonight is going to be taking place, three separate waves of enemies are going to coming right towards, even though we wiped out all three bases in the area, the enemies that attack at night are different."

Brief displays of said enemies appeared as I continued with my narrative, "For the most part they won't be much of an issue with the Bunkers in place for now, the real threats are going to be the final attacks from each wave."

Now displays of Frankenstein, Iron Monger and City Guard appeared, along with stats and such, "I haven't fought these things with Bunkers, Firebats or even Vultures for that matter, the Terran Boss is actually the only one that has killed my troops so far, the other two can pretty much PWN a barricade in two hits."

I also made sure to mention the teleporting thing the City Guard could do, the rampage dash Iron Monger was capable of, Frankenstein didn't have much in the terms of a super, just soaked up a lot of damage before it could be put down.

"My plans are to let the garrisoned troops take care of the regular attackers, they'll be safe inside the Bunkers so long as we have SCVs around to repair them, Vultures will provide fire support and place more Spider Mines as the Bosses make an appearance, we only have a limited number of them so use them sparingly." I highlighted the Bosses so they dominated the projection.

"Rally Cry and any other special power ups from us are going to used primarily against these guys, try to keep a majority of the troops back just behind the Bunkers to avoid getting targeted, the Bunkers can get repaired as long as we got resources we don't have any Medics to heal any damaged troops."

I looked around the table again before looking down, "At least that is the plan anyway, something new might pop up and we'll have to adapt accordingly so be prepared for a plan change, grab some chow, catch up on some sleep and get ready, your suit is undergoing some upgrades," I had pointed at Cpl. Hanov, "as for your bike I have no idea, check it out and report to me if you notice anything new," that was directed to Lt. Hismallen, "alright people get to it."

I checked the Science Facility terminal again to see if anything else was available, nothing new yet, turns out I was going to have to level up first before I could even touch those.

That and I wasn't going to upgrade the special research options until after I had the points required to level up first, the requirements were forcing me to choose between stockpiling points in order to level up instead of purchasing valuable upgrades that could give me an edge at my current level.

The good news was that I just about had all of the building and troop requirements, the upgrades as well, Allies and was working on the kill requirements for both myself and the rest of the guys, so other than the research points, boss kills and that commander mission was all I had to look forward to.

_Warning: Nightfall approaching, Zerg bio signs detected, ETA five minutes_

Guess it was time to rack up some kills then.

The six Bunkers at the bottom of the ramps were in a half-circle formation around, four Bunkers making the frontline and the other two tucked back at a 45 degree angle to protect the sides, not to mention I still had a couple Bunkers on the ramps and the ones at the top of the ramps as well and a lot of troops as well that were only a Rally Cry away from effectively knocking anything on its collective ass.

It started out just like it normally did, Zombies started coming, they died and life was perfect until the first bunch of Zerglings showed up.

Guess it was too much to ask for something simple wasn't it?

With Zerglings thrown into the mix it didn't really matter that much, the concentrated firepower of all the Marines at range were able to kill most of them, there was a single Vulture parked in-between each Bunker providing some support that would whittle away a couple more before the Firebats sitting inside the Bunkers would light them up once they got close enough. It was a good thing that I didn't have Spider Mines scattered around in front of my Bunkers, they would have been a waste on a single Zombie or a handful of Zerglings that got close enough, so far there hadn't even been a single scratch on my Bunkers yet.

Each Bunker had two War Pigs, a single Devil Dog and one regular Marine garrisoned inside, call it favoritism or stacking the odds in my favor, I call it effective strategy to implement the more effective troops as the tip of the sword, that and the Vandals were the ones between the Bunkers providing fire support with dual grenade launchers.

Myself and my Allies were standing just behind the Bunkers, I figured out how I could climb on top of one and was using that vantage point to keep an eye on things and shoot anything that moved out there, along with tossing some grenades, mostly I was catching up on the kills I needed for my level requirements and seeing how many kills I could get with a single grenade.

So far my best was 6 Zombies at once and I was just about finished with the rifle kills (three ammo runs later) when Adjutant decided to drop a bombshell in my lap.

_Warning: multiple Zerg bio signs identified as "Frankenstein" heading towards present location, ETA 5 minutes_

Wait, what?

"How many Adjutant?" This was not was I was expecting, multiple Bosses at once?

_Two confirmed sir and a rather large contingent of troops massing behind them_

Shit on a cracker, alright time to get Commanderish, it's a thing so bite me.

"We get two for the price of one people," I addressed my Allies after I turned and jumped off the top of the Bunker, landing if front of them like I had planned that or something, all I was happy with was that I didn't eat shit and land on my face, "take your positions and wait for my command."

At first I could just see one of them stumbling towards us before a second hulk shambled out of the darkness and made a beeline straight towards my Bunkers, just far enough apart that they couldn't get hit with a single Rally Cry, clever, but I did have three Rally Cry capable people and myself present.

"I want four mines placed in front of each of them, should be more than enough to knock off some health before they come into range at the least," I waited as two Vandals moved forward and deposited the squat little mines onto the ground before retreating back behind the Bunkers, "Cpl. Hanov, activate your Rally Cry when I give the command."

_Of course sir_

Frankenstein #1 walked right up to the Bunkers, absorbing the blasts of multiple Spider Mines like they were nothing, but easily more than half of its health was taken out before the first War Pig or Vandal opened fire.

"Now!"

The familiar looking aura reached out and touched not only a column of 60 Marines, but the occupants of three Bunkers as well, good to know that garrisoned troops can still be affected by Rally Cry as a roar from nearly a hundred weapons lit up the night. Vandals had rapid fire and the column of Marines moved forward to engage Frankenstein #1 with devastating results as the garrisoned troops did the same, though when it finally came into range of the Devil Dogs, things got interesting.

Getting hit by fire caused it to stumble backwards, then it clicked, these things were afraid of UV radiation, making them susceptible to extreme heat as well, now that made things easier.

It exploded in a shower of gore an SCV raced after the Zerg Bio Sample as I ordered 10 Firebats forward from the back of the group, there was something I wanted to see about proving my theory if fire was the true weakness of Frankenstein #2 as it got closer.

_Should we activate Rally Cry sir?_

"No, I want to try something first." I watched as spikes and grenades flew out to smack into the tough hide of this monster before I ordered the Firebats forward.

_Sir, they'll be killed_

"Just watch, I want to see what happens."

Frankenstein #2 didn't disappoint either as withstood the volume of projectiles sent towards it, but it froze in its tracks and stumbled backwards after the Firebats starting melting the thing's kneecaps, driving it back slightly as it failed to attack anything, causing it to die a rather anticlimactic death as well and it didn't even cost a Rally Cry to do it either.

The final wave of Zombies and Zerglings was just enough to dent two Bunkers, but aside from that all of the casualties belonged to the Rouge Zerg and I was left with 20 Zerg Bio Sample research points, this was looking to be a good night.

Firebats now have a special place in my heart, if they can take down a Frankenstein without taking any damage, then so be it, I made a mental note to make it standard protocol for dealing with them later on as I took a quick jog back up to the Command Center to grab some food and see how everything was doing.

The other three Command Centers I had under construction were more than halfway done and looked like they were going to be smaller than my existing Command Center, the frames were finished and everything else was getting installed on them, at least ten hours left so there is that.

I now had 34/30 Zerg Bio Sample points, by the end of the night I would have the research points required and boss kills needed, my only problem was that I needed 2 more Commander Upgrades as well, that and do whatever that Commander Mission was going to be, I decided to hold off on sacrificing points until after I learned what possible rewards I was going to gain from the Commander Mission, if any at all.

The Protoss showed up with the usual Thralls backed by an increasing number of Zealots that had somewhat decent shields, but that didn't matter much considering that my Vandals could launch high damage output grenades compared to spikes traveling at hypersonic speeds, thus taking out most of the shields before either a Marine or even a Firebat got the lucky shot in. Psi blades vs. a Bunker turns out to be kind of weak, didn't think that Zealots would have poor luck against structures with all the damage they can deal against infantry or even Vultures for that matter, but I decided to not care after watching my SCVs repair each hit in less than five seconds after the Zealot was destroyed.

Rather than stand at the opposite corner of the Bunker and magically repair the damage on the other side of the Bunker, turns out my SCVs need to actually repair the damaged segment of the building directly, usually applying patches or welding gaps shut before taking off around the Bunker whenever an enemy got close.

By the time the final Protoss wave came, I watched as two City Guards appeared way off in the distance and started marching towards my Bunkers, now I was curious and more than my own good kind of curious.

"I want two Vultures to scout the Rouge Terran and Rouge Protoss bases," I ordered my Vulture savvy Ally before the first boss got even close, "I want to know where these things are spawning from, have them do the usual scouting thing and avoid a firefight."

_Can do boss_

By now the first City Guard was getting close, eh why not.

"Sgt. Casari let them have it!"

Over a hundred units opened up as the City Guard found itself under the concentrated fire of multiple types of good guys, though namely the Vandals, Marines and the Spider Mines that erupted against its legs, each Spider Mine was responsible for taking out 10% of its shields, not bad, beats trying to waste ammo against the shields. It got close enough to attack one Bunker before the shields hit zero and it teleported to the left, two Bunkers down I guess you could say as one last final burst of spikes, grenades and jet of fire reduced it to nothing before it could the next Bunker.

While an SCV raced over to the smoking Bunker that lost 40% of its health from a single hit, I patently waited for the next City Guard to come into range and activated my own Rally Cry.

_427…350…229…106…87…05…000_

Reload, aw screw it, have a grenade to the face, didn't do much except make me feel slightly better as the carefully placed Spider Mines exploded, I was honestly upset that City Guards didn't have some kind of counter unit weakness like Frankenstein did, that would make my life so much easier.

Of course this City Guard didn't do much better than the first one did, attack one Bunker, lose all shields, pull that teleporting move out of its ass, attack another Bunker and then die, yea for me.

"The Rouge Terran will have something for us soon," I watched as two SCVs raced ahead, grabbing the Protoss Chrystal Shards and took them back to the Science Facility as another two SCVs repaired the damaged Bunkers, "restock any ammo and take ten people."

I decided to see how my scouts were doing, all alone and in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night with who knows what kind of unpleasant things running around.

_Got nothing to report over here boss_

_Ain't a sign of em here either_

Well, that was an honest surprise and some delightful news as well, I figured that they would be spawning either from the actual base or nearby, so that left only one possible choice.

"Head to the ramp and notify me if they come from that direction, save your mines." I told them as I reached the Command Center, mostly to take my suit off and stretch my arms a little while the others simply organized troops and waited.

By the time the Rouge Terran decided to show up, my Vultures reported that they did in fact come over the top of the rubble of the only ramp leading out of this place, now that was interesting and would save me a lot of grief in the future as well, though Ravagers and Marines made up the attacking force, it was time to really see what Bunkers could do.

Ravagers took a single Vulture sized grenade or about half a second of direct flamethrower exposure, so they went down easy, the Marines were just as outgunned and outranged as before, though they were coming in larger groups as it got later.

I was about to call it a night and just go to sleep when the first Iron Monger appeared, now these guys would get all the red carpet I could give them, it they could dash through a barricade and pretty much one shot a Marine, then it wouldn't be that hard for them to mow through Firebats or Vultures as I decided to keep them back for now.

"Cpl. Hanov and Lt. Hismallen, activate Rally Cry and move your forces ahead now!"

It was a plan I had devised, there was only so much a handful of garrisoned troops inside of a couple Bunkers could do, so the massed troops behind the Bunkers were there to bring out the big guns and hopefully hurt these things enough before it got close enough to do some damage.

Turns out two groups of amped up Marine, Firebat and Vulture combo able to move ahead of the Bunkers and lay on the hurt actually worked to an extent, turns out Spider Mines cause this thing to falter, about three seconds of just standing there instead of moving or even attacking, of course I capitalize on things like that and was more than happy to do so as the first Iron Monger exploded.

"Sgt. Casari, on me, activate now!" I vaulted off the top of the Bunker I was standing on top of to get a decent vantage point for this fight as I activated my own Rally Cry, affecting one half of the troops just getting over the first Rally Cry as Sgt. Casari did the same for the rest, bringing about a hundred fifty plus itchy trigger fingers back into overdrive as the last Boss for the night walked into range.

The bad news was that my supply of Spider Mines ran out after two, so instead of watching the Iron Monger get pummeled by suicidal explosives, I got to watch two little puffs and that was it and I paid for it as well.

Iron Monger #2 got 4 Marines and 1 Firebat in a brief charge and another 2 Marines with its weapon before it was finally killed, not bad in terms of losses, I gave the order for all of the advanced troops to pull back once both Terran Research Files were picked up just as the final wave of Ravagers and Marines came into range. On the upside there wasn't any damage to any of the Bunkers from the Iron Mongers, making it easier for my garrisoned troops to take care of the regulars and the most damage they managed to do was scratch a couple Bunkers and a single Vandal.

SCVs are a wonderful thing to have.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Power Armor Sprint=10 meter range 15 Energy cost, Power Armor Hand Grenade=1 HE Grenade 15 Energy cost, Detector=Passive skill_

_Health: 350 HP: 1 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +3_

_Energy: 80/80: Recharge rate 5 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 100/100: Recharge rate 25 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 75/75 Hand Grenade Kills, 300/300 Rifle Kills, 751/1,000 Confirmed Kills, 3/3 Rescued Allies, 3/5 Commander Research Points, 6/6 Boss Kills, 0/1 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 66/50 Depots, 115/100 SCVs, 305/200 Marines, 86/50 Firebats, 24/10 Vultures, 9/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 34/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 34/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 34/30 Terran Research Files, 3/1 Rescued Allies, 4/2 Barracks, 4/3 Command Centers, 1/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 27,120_

_Gas: 21,600_

_Supply: 524/700_

_…_

The good news when I rolled out of bed the next morning was that I had three brand new shiny Command Centers that I was really disappointed in after I got dressed and went over to see how they looked as the rest of my Allies were still sleeping.

"Adjutant, what exactly am I looking at?" I stared in disbelief as all three of them came into view.

_The modular series Command Center X7E series was made to answer the call for a cheaper and more readily produced resource collection and management station that is also capable of relocating to other locations. Lacking most of the personal comforts of the Command Center Firebase series, these kind of Command Centers have more flexibility and fulfill the role for massive amounts of mineral and gas harvesting and processing._

"So in other words I have mobile bases only capable of building SCVs and such?"

_That is correct Commander, do you have any other queries at this time?_

"No, thank you." I rolled my eyes as I walked over to see the new features of my new Command Centers.

First off they were like half the size, turns out I can't even walk inside them, the other obvious differences is that they each have four oversized jets they can use for liftoff, a really handy feature to be honest because my personal Command Center didn't have any now that I thought about it.

The bad news was that all of the minerals and geysers in this immediate area were gone, completely harvested some time during the night, which explained why I had such a low resource count after 10 hours.

A quick run with a few Vultures revealed that the old Rouge base locations were still unoccupied and I decided that today would be the day I was going to expand my empire.

I sent 25 SCVs, 1 Command Center, 75 Marines, 20 Firebats, 5 Vultures, Sgt. Casari and her usual batch of troops to where the old Rouge Terran based used to be with explicit orders to build 2 Barracks, 1 Factory, 10 Bunkers, 2 Refineries and 20 Depots in a pre-arranged manner I mapped out on the holo-table.

Cpl. Hanov got sent with the same number of units with the same orders to the old Rouge Protoss base while I sent Lt. Hismallen to where the old Rouge Zerg base used to be with about the same number of guys as well as I decided that today was going to be focused on the Commander Mission after I made sure everything was going to plan.

My plan was to establish a massive economy and hopefully enough buildings for future expansion as I watched my resources plummet, once each base was up and running then they would each produce 25 more SCVs and begin harvesting massive amounts of resources, of course I was also putting in orders for 100 Marines, 50 Firebats and 10 Vultures to be built from each location as well. That sounds almost ridiculous if it wasn't for the fact that I was going to need a lot more troops anyway, turns out I can't build anymore Science Facilities or Merc Compounds, though that would have made things convenient or some nonsense like that, guess you can't win them all.

I have to say that watching a trio of Command Centers liftoff and fly away is pretty cool, even though I have never seen a building fly in person, it was still pretty awesome, that and I suddenly had all of this room at my primary base.

To avoid confusion, I had each base named, Alpha for my own personal Command Center and such, Bravo for the one Sgt. Casari was at, Charlie for Lt. Hismallen and Delta for Cpl. Hanov in retrospect so that I wouldn't get mixed up which base was which. In my mind the one base that was going to get the most grief was probably going to be Charlie base simply because there was only one ramp leading out of the area and all of the night attacks would be coming from that direction anyway, much fun I know, so that was why I went there personally to oversee a few things.

Placement of 6 more Bunkers, 2 additional Barracks and another Factory to be built as well, by now I was really low on resources as I waited.

Once the Bunkers, Depots and Barracks were built, a majority of the SCVs I had went straight to work, watching nearly a hundred workers gather and harvest the stuff I needed was a wonderful thing as the troop requests I had in place were starting off. Half of the Barracks at each base were built with a Reactor to increase Marine production as the other Barracks were left without, that and they were busy producing Firebats, once the Factories were online then all of them would start cranking out Vultures, but that was going to take awhile.

When my three Allies found me at the beacon, I had them bring their usual minions while I had my own standard load out of 50 Marines, 20 Firebats, 5 Vultures and 6 SCVs ready to go.

There were times that even I wished I knew what I was doing.

"Adjutant, continue with assigned mission and standby," I took a deep breath as I eyed the beacon, suddenly feeling really uncomfortable, "I'm about to go in."

_Affirmative Commander, abiding by all directives and orders in your presumed absence _

"Here we go."

I took one step onto the beacon after hesitating for about half a second, expecting pretty much anything to happen, lightning bolt, flash of light, endless horde of bad guys appearing out of thin air, something to happen.

Except nothing did as I looked around, shrugged and spent five minutes tap dancing, jumping up and down, sliding across it rock star style, the shuffle, punching it, shouting random words at it before deciding to lower my visor so I could ask Adjutant something.

Note to self, lower the damn visor before wasting time looking like a jackass.

Here we go, wait for the HUD to highlight, identify, connecting and…

_…_

_Terran Commander Mission #1_

_Objectives: Eliminate all hostile forces in immediate vicinity _

_[SECONDARY] Rescue captive neutral units 0/5_

_[BONUS] Defeat Rouge Terran Boss for reward_

_Requirements: Terran Commander Level [ONE]_

_…_

_Initiate Mission [YES] or [NO]_

_…_

Huh, so that it how it works, okay so blink at the yes option and then-Holy Shit!

One second I had enough troops and allies standing around me to pose a threat to pretty much take on anything that has been encountered so far and the next it feels like I am falling through a trap door as everything goes dark for a couple seconds and then it is bright again.

Well not really bright, the floodlights built into my armor activated after my feet hit the ground before I decided to fall on my ass, totally didn't hurt at all, nope not one bit as I stood back up and looked around to wonder where I was at.

Definitely some kind of underground hallway, if the dull metal walls with the occasional flickering overhead lights were any kind of indicator, then I figured that I was either inside of a really big building or a ship perhaps? Because there wasn't a You Are Here map stuck to the wall nearby, I decided that going forward was my only option at the time because there was only a wall right behind me anyway as I did a brief check of my suit and rifle, which I still had.

It just really pissed me off that instead of bringing all of my guys and hard won Allies along, turns out I got to do this solo, nice to know that I only had to eliminate every single bad guy in the area, however big this place was and what exactly was I even fighting here? Terran I think, because there was something about a bonus objective saying that I would have to defeat a Rouge Terran Boss in order to gain a reward and rescuing other captives? Let's see if I can even access my HUD or maybe Adjutant, if I could get a call for reinforcements to arrive from the others, oh that would make my day.

"Come on you piece of junk," I found myself whacking the side of my visor not two minutes later after all I got was a [CONNECTION FAILURE] message over and over again before I decided to just press on and see what this madness was all about.

After walking 100 meters (my HUD still has distance approximation functions) I reached another dead end of sorts, not a wall, but a really big door of some kind.

"Uh, open sesame?"

_Clunk!_

You have got to be kidding me, I was expecting some kind of weird cipher lock I was going to have to hack or something like that, that or a button to push, two words and all the doors were going to open up just like that?

The second the door opened however, I found myself looking at half a dozen Rouge Terran Ravagers and a single Rouge Marine standing outside the door with muzzles pointed in my direction.

_Fuck._

The sound of your own Impaler spewing out dozens of 8mm spikes a second is a glorious sound as I started backpedaling backwards to put some distance between myself and those guys because A) there was nothing to hide behind and B) they were way too close.

The good news was that my shields were able to stop the first, second, third and fourth bursts from those guys, it sure is unreal to see a projectile whizzing towards your face suddenly stop midair and fall to the ground harmlessly after a second, that and it prevented me from getting shot for the first couple of seconds. The bad news was that the Marine had the bigger gun and longer range over 6 Ravagers, just as I moved out range of the smaller guys, my shields flashed a warning that they were at critical levels (like 5 points I think) before they just vanished under the assault of another burst.

I did manage to score a direct hit on the visor of the Rouge Marine before it could fire again and then I hosed the hall with spikes in order to shred the Ravagers into confetti before they could walk forward and attack me again.

I had lost exactly one health point as my shields slowly started to recharge, I should've just thrown a grenade or something instead, would've taken care of those guys a lot faster.

The door was still wide open as I cautiously stepped closer, looting a single mag of spikes off the dead Marine and moving the corpses to the side of the hallway, in the unlikely event I had to haul ass back in this direction, I wouldn't trip over them. Having waited long enough for my shields to recharge, I ventured past the door and found myself at another hallway, this one having a branch at the end, in a sense making a T with me standing in the middle of a three-way intersection knowing that I could only go one of two ways.

I decided to go left for some reason, figured that I could always backtrack later and see what I would possibly find the other way.

The hallway turned into a large room, the large stenciled words REC BAY above the door an obvious giveaway as I waited for the door to open, this time I had a grenade in my hand ready to go.

When 10 Ravagers and 3 Marines standing in the room look over from whatever they were doing, guarding a smaller door at the far end of the room that was dominated with a bunch of large metal crates (a couple of which were glowing) and a pillar or two, perfect ambush territory for them because I was all by my lonesome. I tossed the grenade and ran towards the nearest thing big enough for me to hide behind, a pillar, and watched 4 Ravagers explode into little pieces as the rest of the bad guys got behind something and started shooting at me.

Naturally I shot back.

Instead of an overwhelming rush of bad guys charging towards me with guns blazing, it kind of turned into a regular old shootout, they would pop up from behind or step out from cover, fire off a couple shots in my general direction, hide and then repeat after a few seconds. Sadly they were smart enough to avoid grouping together, that and I would have to stand still for a couple seconds out in the open in order to throw a grenade at any of them, instead I simply waited for the closest Ravager to start attacking before I put half a dozen spikes into its helmet, duck back behind my little pillar for a few seconds to wait for the Marines with the much bigger guns to stop firing and then repeat my little sneak and shoot maneuver.

Soon I had whittled away the Ravagers, they lacked any kind of armor or decent health points in a fight against me, especially when I got something to hide behind that was solid enough to stop the pitiful bullets shot at me, it was really annoying that they were taking out my shields faster than I thought.

Once the last Marine went down with 30 or so spikes through its visor, I carefully looked around to make sure nothing else hostile was hiding in the room, finding none and moved over to that door they had all been standing around earlier. I grabbed two spare magazines off a dead Marine so all of my ammo was topped off, how strange it felt knowing that there wasn't a Depot around to reload from as I walked closer to the door.

Stopping dead in my tracks about thirty feet away too when my Detector pinged with this attention grabbing _ping-ping-ping-ping_ sound as I looked around to see what it was freaking out over, it was about then that my HUD highlighted something when I looked at the floor in front of the door.

Freaking Spider Mines, really? Okay now all those research points spent towards the Detector had just paid for themselves already as I took a few steps back and slowly panned my visor across sweeping areas of the floor and ceiling to see if there was anything else. Only things in the entire room that stood out were the 3 Spider Mines buried in the steel floor, the door I was trying to investigate and a small terminal built into the side of another pillar I hadn't noticed until now, looking back at the pillar I had stayed behind the duration of the firefight had reminded me that this was real.

First to go are going to have to be those damn Spider Mines, what really blew my mind was how they were buried in a steel floor of all things, shouldn't there have been a small and rather obvious crater from when they buried themselves or something? You know what, forget it, I would just get frustrated trying to figure it out when I had more important things to worry about.

Turns out a grenade is highly effective at setting those things off at a distance, a safe distance mind you, I half expected for them to burst out of the ground unscathed and chase after me, so there I was pointing my rifle in that direction, ready to hose them with spikes if the grenade didn't do its job.

Thankfully it did as I stepped closer to the door that was marked [LOCKED] on my HUD, so being the curious sort of guy, it came as no surprise that I should open said door, though I did have another grenade ready just in case.

When the door did open and I caught a glimpse of neutral Marines just standing in there, all 5 of them, I let out a collective sigh of relief and put the grenade away, well actually it was dismantled by the fabricator in my glove, storing the materials for later, now I really had to figure out how many I could actually throw, yeah it cost energy, but did I have enough explosives in my suit to reach the moon or something?

_Thanks for the rescue sir, we'll help you escape this place_

Now I had 5 default Marines at my side.

A closer look revealed that I had 5 _unarmed_ default Marines at my side, now I want to rip my hair out.

Well 3 of them were able to pick up rifles from the Marines I had defeated, about two magazines apiece because the Ravager's weapons were too small for my other Marines to even use, so now over half of them had Impaler rifles, those that didn't were ordered to walk behind in order to avoid getting shot.

Because the only way in or out of this room was the way I had come in, I decided to see what was so important about the terminal my HUD picked up earlier after I sent my Marines around to collect all of the resource caches laying around, earning me an easy 2,000 minerals and 1,000 gas.

It was a simple metal box with a single lever and two buttons, one red and one glowing green, the lever was flipped up so I pulled the lever down and hit the red button, what this did I have no idea, but it seemed to have some kind of significance as I led my motley crew of escapees away.

As I passed the first firefight I was in by myself, another Marine snatched up the only available Impaler so now I had more with guns now instead of 5 guys without guns, that and they hadn't even done anything yet. That was subject to change now that I was entering an area I have not been too before, I took the lead simply because I had the Detector upgrade and because I had already encountered some Spider Mines probably meant that there was going to be more of them around here somewhere as well.

The hallway lead to another REC BAY, expecting the same thing earlier I waited for the door to open with a grenade in my hand and four Impaler rifles aimed at the door.

Just as the door opened I tossed my grenade at the first thing wearing Rouge colors and brought my rifle up as my Marines (with guns) fired as well, the result was 16 Ravagers and 2 Rouge Marines reduced to kibble in the first few seconds of the fight. The Ravagers were the first to go down from a single burst, I think that maybe these Marines I had rescued weren't exactly default now that I thought about it. If they could drop a Ravager with a single burst of spikes (3-5 rounds) then they must have either a damage or range bonus methinks.

The good news was that the rest of the Rouge presence in this bay was limited to 4 Ravagers and 3 Marines, the latter of which were standing behind the same crate that ate a grenade courtesy of me as the last Ravagers in the room went down after leaving a few scratches.

Before I sent my Marines, now sufficiently armed and stocked with enough ammo to last another fight, around gathering all of the resource caches laying around, I first made a sweep of the entire room first to see if there were any hidden surprises waiting for me. I found another locked door with 3 Spider Mines buried in front of the door, another terminal hidden behind another terminal and the obvious exit leading out of here, a grenade throw later revealed 5 neutral Marines that didn't have any rifles that joined with me, 4 of them looting rifles off the dead and the terminal I simply flipped the switch and moved over towards the exit after waiting what felt like forever, but was probably only ten minutes for my shields and energy to recharge fully.

Far as I knew there wasn't a time limit or a schedule to keep in place, so I could take my sweet time if I felt like it that and the usual clock in the bottom right hand corner of my HUD was gone as well, so I really had no idea how long I've spent in this place so far.

Another thing was that I had no idea what these terminal looking things with the switches even did, so far I was kind of hoping that they would help me later on rather than unleash more perspective bad guys upon me or something.

Man, I really have to stop thinking so negative.

Long winding hallway with a few hidden surprises along the way, turns out you can set off a Spider Mine with an Impaler rather than using a grenade, you just need to be able to see it (cough Detector cough) in order to know whereabouts you need to shoot. That and the resulting explosion of one will set the others off if they are in a cluster of say three Spider Mines, though that wasn't a real surprise this time.

No the real surprise was when a segment of the floor popped up, just beyond the range of my Detector as I got close enough, activated some kind of spinning wheel covered in machine guns and let it rip.

This auto gun trap didn't last under a barrage of spikes sent towards it, that and my shields were able to take the brunt of the damage before the trap exploded, I was actually expecting some kind of HUD message or something, but nada I guess.

The next room had an interesting layout, a central area with four pillars and some crates to use as cover, a ramp at the back of the room that lead to another level, from there I believe access to the catwalks around the edge of the room could be found there as I tagged a staggering 25 Ravagers, 10 Marines and get this, 2 Firebats as well. I also picked up 12 Spider Mines scattered around the room and four glowing squares on the floor too, odds are auto gun traps again, no surprise there, but the good news was that the Rouge forces hadn't noticed me, no they were looking at another locked door at the top of the ramp.

I was most definitely taking losses in this fight, 9 of my Marines had rifles and the last one didn't, not like one of those Rouge Marines was willing to hand over a spare rifle they had laying around.

Both Firebats and about half of the Marines were on the ground floor, three quarters of the Ravagers were as well, 2 Marines were sitting at the top of the ramp leading up with a handful of Ravagers and the other 3 were patrolling the catwalks with a pair of Ravagers as well, there were three clusters of Spider Mines around the ground floor and the fourth at the top of the ramp, now what to do.

Obviously those Firebats would have to go first, they could take quite a bit of damage before going down and they could easily incinerate my Marines at close range where cover wouldn't help them, the Ravagers I wasn't really worried about either, unless they all charged at once then things would get interesting. Now the Marines on the other hand would prove to be difficult, especially at range and half of them had the higher ground where any cover down in the central area would be useless. There was also the issue about those damn Spider Mines and auto gun traps as well, there were simply too many targets to handle at once, the amount of focus to carefully get through this would have to be astronomical and I personally tend to get distracted when bullets start flying.

I could just use Rally Cry, mow down anything that shoots back, destroy the Spider Mines and auto gun traps as I go, that method would improve my chances of success, but no doubt increase the casualty rate for my Marines too, none of them had a med pack feature to at least heal 25 health points, I had one and couldn't use it on other units. The other options would require me to leave my Marines at the door, tackle as many Rouge forces by myself as I could to pick off a couple before retreating to the door where my own Marines could be part of a counter ambush, maybe even place them farther back in the hallway to force the Rouge guys to funnel into the hallway, thus creating an effective kill zone, that could work.

If it wasn't for the fact that there was going to be a final boss around here sooner or later, I would simply activate a Rally Cry and charge, but I wanted as many surviving units as possible when it came time to fight the boss, no doubt an Iron Monger probably.

Well, those guys weren't going to kill themselves and make it easier for me, so I decided to go with Plan B, attack solo and lure more bad guys to their death, joy.

Shields fully charged, I could throw 6 hand grenades before my energy ran out, a full mag in my rifle, lets see what happens then shall we?

The first thing I did was lob a grenade all the way over the nearest Firebat before turning 4 Ravagers into Swiss cheese as bullets started flying, don't mind me I'll just toss another grenade at 2 Marines, douse another 3 Ravagers and then shoot the ever living shit out of that Firebat charging towards me, okay close one, awesome way the fuel tank erupted like a rocket, blasting the larger suit into a trio of Ravagers where it naturally explode. Shields are gone, time to run back to the door so I can avoid being killed, I told myself the sound I was hearing was just hail bouncing off the roof and not bullets and spikes ricocheting off my armor before I managed to reach the door and kept running.

That actually went pretty well, I lost 53 health points in the ordeal, but that was after taking out 2 Firebats, 3 Marines and 11 Ravagers at the cost of 3 grenades and an entire mag of spikes from my own Impaler, not so bad.

6 Ravagers and 1 Marine had decided to follow me into the hallway where they got lit up by my Marines before they could take any damage, now I had all 10 of my Marines armed with Impaler rifles and half of the Rouge Terran had been wiped out. Now that left 7 Marines, 14 Ravagers, the auto gun traps and Spider Mines of course, I still consider that to be an acceptable loss to a few of my health points as I decided to wait long enough for my shields and energy to recharge before going back in there to clear out what I hoped would be the auto gun traps and Spider Mines at least.

I was glad both Firebats were gone, they posed a significant threat to not only myself, but to my rag tag Marines that clearly lacked any kind of upgrade, if Sgt. Casari had been here they would have received at least a damage bonus. It had taken over a hundred spikes before I could drop a Firebat though, with the speed those things moved, coupled with the close range requirements, made them dangerous in groups against smaller number of ranged troops.

The Rouge Marines had actually retreated back to the ramp leading up and onto the catwalks, the large majority of the remaining Ravagers had sought cover in the center of the room, ready to turn this place into a kill zone.

Except I had an ace up my sleeve.

Rally Cry is beautiful, it truly is to be honest, the amped up Marines will target anything tagged as hostile as it moves into range, that and a lot can happen in 30 seconds to be honest.

After activating what was probably going to be the real game changer of a power up in the long run, I simply followed as my guys blazed a bloody path from the center of the room to the top of the ramp before they ran out of steam. The good news was that all of the auto gun traps, Spider Mines and Ravagers didn't present much of a problem to me or my guys, the bad news was that the Rouge Marines proved to be a bit of a challenge and were able to take out 3 of my Marines.

That hurt, especially since 2 other Marines were almost to the point of death, like very low double health points and they lacked a health pack to at least recover half as many points lost already, they wouldn't last long in another fight.

I sent the rest of my Marines around to collect the resource caches while I flipped the switch and freed the neutral units, again 5 Marines that were unarmed, this was becoming a trend, three times already and I now had 12 Marines, all of them with Impaler rifles and three magazines apiece.

Faced with only one way out of this room aside from the door I just came through I took point after all of the resource caches were collected and I waited long enough for my shields to recharge before pressing on, again I wasn't under a time crunch and could gladly take my time. This hallway was narrow and littered with 5 solo Spider Mines along the way, Detector is a wonderful thing to have in your arsenal of tricks, even better was that it didn't cost any energy.

It was when the hallway came to another T-intersection that I found something interesting, well aside from the 5 Ravagers and 2 Marines standing there, I bagged those kills with a grenade and fifty spikes before stepping closer to the wall. At first I thought I was seeing things, because unless my eyes deceived me, there were ten Impaler rifles sitting on a rack with another four shelves of magazines for said weapons, sweet.

The even better news was that 10 med packs were sitting on a shelf next to the weapons, any Marine that was wounded was suddenly back in the green at least and a couple Marines now had a pick me up for later, I didn't bother using mine because I already regenerated 16 health points by now, it would be used when I was drastically low.

Even though all of my Marines had weapons, they were finally able to restock on ammo and I picked up a couple spares, making a waypoint for this magical godsend in the event I needed to come back here again as I decided to take a right this time.

That hallway was short and lead to what I honestly think was the main center of operations for the Rouge Terran in this place.

It was an expansive bay of some kind that had a raised walkway wrapping around three sides of the room, every so far there was an armored railing section big enough to hide behind that would provide decent cover because the door I had opened was at this catwalk, far away from any of the Rouge Terran forces in the room.

I counted 30 Ravagers, 10 Marines, 4 Firebats and a single Vulture of all things sitting around another locked door way over there on the far side of the room, my Detector could pinpoint 6 clusters of Spider Mines, 4 auto gun traps and another hidden terminal as well. In terms of cover there wasn't much once I left the catwalk, the only other way up or down from said catwalk was by a single ramp in the center of the catwalk making up the wall to my right. There were a lot of glowing resource caches laying around in the center of the room too, like enough to probably reach a couple thousand of each type without an issue, the problem was that there were a lot of bad guys and all that open space to cross.

I was actually concerned about the Vulture, would it rush over to me and my guys, drop a couple Spider Mines and retreat?

Rally Cry was definitely the winning factor, I spread my Marines out between three armored sections of the railing, I was closest to the ramp so I could grenade anything that came from that direction and watched as the majority of the Ravagers were wiped out in the first few seconds. The Ravagers and Firebats were taken out before they could even approach the ramp, I had to whittle away 6 of the attacking Marines as they came charging up the ramp at the cost of three grenades before the Vulture decided that now was the time to join in by sending high explosive grenades in the direction of the railing.

Good news was that the armored sections of the railing were thick enough to stop the first couple of grenades as my Marines capitalized on targeting the biggest threat as I tossed two grenades, leaving me with only enough energy for one more before the Vulture decided to just die in a rather spectacular fashion. First it exploded in a fireball, the boosters locking in some random direction before it launched itself into the air before finally exploding in a ball of shrapnel, said flaming debris landed on top of an auto gun trap, destroying it, yah for me. I only lost 2 of my Marines this time around, a lot better than losing more if I hadn't pick up some extra med packs because I now had the rest of the bay to clear out from Spider Mines and auto gun traps before I ventured over to rescue more Marines and collected resource caches and decided if I would flip this terminal switch or not.

In the time it took for me to clear out all the mines and traps, free my newest additions and wait long enough for my shields and energy to recover, I had activated the switch and headed back to the supply cache sitting at the intersection because there wasn't any way out of that bay except for the door I entered through.

So far I have rescued 20 Marines, lost 5 of them and was currently left with 15 Marines as I led the way down the left side of the intersection because it was literally the only way to go so far.

It appears that I found the last bay, this one having two possible exits besides the door I just walked through, a lot of metal containers and crates to hide behind and a whole lot of glowing resource caches sitting around as well.

"You have got to be kidding me," I sighed as I tagged 25 Ravagers, 15 Marines, 5 Firebats, 2 Vultures, 20 Spider Mines, 7 auto gun traps, a hidden terminal panel and the locked door I was going to visit after I figured out how I was going to kill of these bad guys first, "it just isn't my day."

This fight was going to hurt, a lot as far as I could tell because there was nothing on my side of the room that would protect me or my Marines from incoming fire unless they ran across half the bay, which was littered with mines, auto gun traps and nothing solid to hide behind. Standing beside the closest piece of cover, a giant metal shipping container that would be tall enough to hide behind, were the Rouge Firebats, so they had to go before a mad dash towards cover could commence.

I was worried about the Vultures, they just needed two shots and a single Marine would be toast, so I decided to implement crazy Plan B again.

First I tossed three grenades at the Firebats and hosed the one survivor before it got far as what appeared to be a hundred Ravagers charged towards me.

I didn't need grenades to whittle away their numbers, I targeted the Spider Mines in front of them just as they ran over them, the resulting explosions taking a few Ravagers along with each detonation before they got into range. I did the time honored tradition of pray and spray from the hip, left to right a couple times like I was operating a fire hose, rather than an automatic assault rifle spewing hypersonic spikes.

_367…281…115…68…29…000_

Crap, got to reload, really glad that my shields can take the abuse as I quickly reloaded and started firing again as the first Vulture arrived, the grenades going off around me an obvious sign that things were not about to go very well for me as I decided to fight instead of flight.

Two grenades and half a mag later, the Vulture was now a smoking crater in the middle of the floor and I had just lost a total 100 health points as the Ravagers got a little help from some Rouge Terran Marines that were shooting at me from cover. I was too busy backtracking to notice that I had a couple followers by the time I stepped back through the doorway wondering why I had thought this would be a good idea instead of just turning my guys loose on them first.

The rest of the Ravagers and half of the Marines were taken out before I managed to catch my breath and reload, by that time the unmistakable shape of a Vulture was sitting at the end of the hallway and I had enough.

"Fire!"

The sound of 15 Impaler rifles going off after a Rally Cry activated is a really loud noise that makes you wonder if you're hearing is going to suffer permanent damage, but at the time you don't care because it was like an invisible grinder ate away at the front end of the Vulture hover bike, works its way to about where the ammo is stored and then an even louder explosion goes off rendering you pretty much deaf now.

It was sobering to see 4 Marines had been killed, none of them stood much of a chance when a grenade half the size of an Impaler slams into already weakened armor plating, though now that the last threat had been neutralized, it made it that much easier to move up and clear out the rest of the nasty surprises waiting for me before I did the usual free the neutral units, fiddle with the terminal, collect the resource caches and loot more ammo off the dead guys.

I was left with 16 Marines, 3 of which were nearly in the red and I lacked any kind of med packs to use, I would have to wait for over an hour to recover the health points that I had lost personally as I simply waited for my shields and energy to recharge. Once both bars were full on my HUD, I decided to press on and headed for the only exit this place had, noticing that the secondary objective was completed, whatever the reward was going to be I had no idea, though I doubt that I would have gotten this far without the neutral Marines I've rescued. That left me with the primary objective of eliminating every single enemy in the immediate vicinity and the bonus objective of taking out the Terran Boss, obviously it was going to be an Iron Monger. I actually lost count of all the free resource caches I've collected so far, not that it mattered if I died before this mission was finished, but hey a guy can dream right?

I ran into another shelf of spare Impaler rifles, ammo and a bunch of med packs, score, though I was kind of worried about the last set of doors at the end of this hallway, one was marked [HANGER BAY] and the other was decorated with streaks of what I think was red paint and a couple neutral Marines pinned to the door by a bunch of _really_ big spikes, guess I knew where to find the Terran Boss.

On one hand I could simply finish the mission and call it a day, the idea of a bonus objective meant that it wasn't a requirement for said mission to be accomplished, it was usually something that would either yield a larger reward or make the final fight easier. At least I hoped it was one or the other, no way was I going to waltz through the other door and find myself against 50 Rouge Marines and a dozen Firebats after fighting an effing boss for crying out loud and that got me thinking, how was I going to take down a boss of all things with far less troops than I would have liked?

I didn't have a quarter or else I would have flipped for it, so instead I checked my Impaler, gave the order to move ahead and waited to see what would happen after the door opened.

Obviously the door decorated with a couple of corpses, though the one thing that really gets me is that every single time one of my units, Marine, Firebat, Vulture or even SCV died, they exploded in a shower of armor shards, fire and gore, even though nothing was inside of them. How does that even happen I mean? For blood and ruptured organs appear even though there isn't anything inside of them to produce said gore? Unless they are just invisible or something because whenever I checked out my new units I noticed there was nothing inside of them, except of course my Allies.

Speaking of which I could really use some of those now that I entered the boss room and sure enough there was an Iron Monger waiting for me and my posse.

Well parts of one actually.

How do I describe this without sounding weird? Okay uh, it was like the Iron Monger had been taken apart, legs, arms, head, torso and such and left hanging on a series of mechanical arms on the wall across from the door, above that were five large segments of what I recognized as the armor plating that would cover the outside of the Iron Monger and give it that really durable armor look instead of the naked and exposed mech look. The room was wide open and without any real kind of cover, though nothing was happening either as I just stood there in the entrance of the door wondering what was about to happen before taking another step forward.

_Clunk!_

Shit, just the door closing all on its own and locking, all on its own apparently, which probably meant that the only way out was by killing said boss. Or dying.

Turning back to look at said Mr. Pieces-On-A-Wall revealed something rather disturbing, all of the mechanical arms were moving and unless I was mistaken, it was being put together pretty darn quick.

First the legs and arms were attached to the torso, before the head was lowered on top of the shoulders, several smaller mechanical arms armed with welders, magnetic clamps and such connecting cables, plates and servos together as I looked a little higher to notice something important, a real game changer. Directly above each armor segment was a set of lights, green and red respectively, all five of them (arms, legs and chest) were lit up red and not moving at all while the rest of the Iron Monger was being put together, which meant all of those hidden terminals I interacted with had actually been worth the effort, five terminals meant five less pieces to this final boss and by now the process of putting this thing back together was accomplished.

Seconds before the thing stepped out of the obvious carriage and reached for the really big damn gun it liked to lug around, I could now get a HUD reading on this thing, that and more importantly, give the command to attack it, which I did after toggling Rally Cry.

_500…320…173…94…38…000_

Turns out the thing didn't have a single bar of armor at all, which was perfectly fine by me because it made it that much easier to kill this thing, even though a full quarter of its health was taken out before it got its massive appendages on said weapon, turned around and started lumbering towards my current position. Right into effective grenade range as a matter of fact, I tossed all of the available grenades I could and finished reloading just as the Rally Cry wore off, leaving this thing with just less than a quarter health left, a big gun and moving into charging range methinks.

Rather than end up pancaked against the door, I sent a single Marine twenty feet ahead of the rest to play the part of willing sacrifice as instead of initially charging like I thought it would when it came into range, this skeletonized version of the Iron Monger simply stopped, aimed and blasted said Marine to bits as the next Marine was sent forth.

Delegating commands and shooting an Impaler isn't as easy as it sounds and before I sounded like a tyrant ordering troops to their untimely demise, I would like to point out that it bought me time, enough time to bring all available weapons to bear on said Rogue Terran Boss before it could charge or attack the bulk of my troops and inflict massive casualties and whittle away a majority of it health before it finally exploded. As in a rather anticlimactic explosion of robot parts after the health bar reached zero, turns out it is a lot easier to kill without that pesky armor in the way, that and I think the grenades helped a little bit, though Rally Cry had done most of the work it seems.

For the loss of 2 Marines to one Iron Monger (more like Iron Skeleton, but whatever) I would take those odds, it was nice watching it explode and sent parts and the occasional resource caches everywhere as I turned to leave and nearly shit my pants.

That and the 20 or so spikes I accidently discharged into the floor in front of my feet would prove as testament of the fact that I am still not a cool and collected fellow when startled, surprised that I didn't shoot myself in the foot, as sturdy as the armor looks I don't want to test the theory of how sturdy it is by shooting myself in the foot thank you very much as I found myself looking at a floating console.

Where it came from I had no idea, but I think it was important (I couldn't attack it or give it a command so there) as I stepped closer and decided to see what it was, more importantly read what it was saying.

_…_

_Option 1_

_Mercenary Augment: Grants all Allied units and respective mercenary units +2 Armor and +20% health points, effects are permeant, research will become available at Science Facility at no cost_

_Option 2_

_General Infantry Augment: simply grants all ground based infantry units +1 Armor and +10% health points, effects are permeant, research will become available at Science Facility at no cost_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level [THREE] may now choose [ONE] of the available options at this time as a reward for defeating [Rouge Terran Boss: Designation Iron Monger] at this time, please note that only the selected option can be utilized, thereby disregarding the other option._

_…_

Huh, okay I honestly expected something different, though it was nice to actually get something other than some resources, not that I was complaining, but I honestly thought I was going to get the Terran Research Files or something, I mean it was a boss wasn't it?

Well after considering the fact that while option one would improve the overall effectiveness of my already superior Allies and associated mercenaries that were a cut above my regular ground troops, but I was hampered by that population cap that only effected my Mercs, whereas option two would improve the bulk of my ground forces, at least the infantry, looks like my vehicles wouldn't benefit from this obviously. I decided to go with option two of course, not only would it give an armor and health bonus that would be permeant, it was going to do it for free nonetheless and that made me very happy.

As much as I thought about one stinking armor point and 10% health points, it would improve the overall chances of my troops surviving in fight that much more, though to be honest, if there had been a damage booster I would have taken it in a heartbeat. 

Once the floating screen disappeared and the door opened, I lead the surviving Marines around through the door marked HANGER BAY and prepared for the worst as the massive door slid open to reveal…

Nothing, except a glowing blue beacon in the middle of the floor.

Big sigh of relief as I walked over to it and waited for my HUD to interface with it as I blinked at the yes option and got ready for a real mind bender of a trip.

_…_

_Terran Commander Mission #1 Completed_

_Objectives: Eliminate all hostile forces in immediate vicinity _

_Primary Objective Reward: 5 Terran Research Files_

_[SECONDARY] Rescue captive neutral units 5/5_

_Secondary Objective Reward: 5 Terran Research Files_

_[BONUS] Defeat Rouge Terran Boss for reward_

_Bonus Objective Reward: General Infantry Augment_

_Requirements: Terran Commander Level [ONE]_

_Resources Collected: 10,000 Minerals 5,000 Gas_

_Friendly Units Lost: 13_

_Enemy Units Killed: 175_

_…_

Sweet, I gained 10 Terran Research Files, a whole bunch of free minerals and gas, there was even a kill counter in effect for the duration of the mission they even transferred over to the kill requirements I was going to need for leveling up as well.

_Commander, you have re-entered communication range after 7 hours and 26 minutes of communication silence_

"Good to hear from you Adjutant," I looked around to realize that I was standing at the base of the ramp with no glowing beacon in sight anymore, "status report?"

_No enemy presence detected, Bravo, Charlie and Delta bases have reported 100% functionality, all available Allies have reported no complications after your initial disappearance _

It was about then that I noticed that none of the neutral Marines from the mission had followed me back through the beacon, kind of sucks, but whatever, I have an entire army waiting for me.

The trek back to Alpha base revealed that just like Adjutant said, every single building was up and running, all of the depots were constructed and my resource counter was climbing at an unreal rate with over a hundred SCVs working away.

All I needed was two more Terran Commander Upgrades and I was set to reach the next level, this was going to be a walk in the park.

_Commander, be advised that a "Anarchy Event" will be upon our current location within the hour_

Me and my stupid positive thoughts.

"Anarchy what? Adjutant please advise."

_Protocol has dictated proper course of action when overwhelming enemy numbers are detected within range, all outgoing strike forces are to fortify or return to the nearest outpost, troop production is to be increased and defenses reinforced, due to supposed overwhelming enemy forces arriving from orbit in a untraceable manner due to sheer number, effectively landing unknown number of ground troops anywhere, such events are known simply as Anarchy Events_

It sure was nice to have a nice little HUD video playing along, showing a multitude of orbital insertions by Rouge Terran, Zerg and Protoss in a terrifying manner, instead of coming from a singular direction, they were shown landing all around and even inside of the perimeter of a base and attacking anything and everything.

Of all the things I expected to come back too, this clearly wasn't it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Power Armor Sprint=10 meter range 15 Energy cost, Power Armor Hand Grenade=1 HE Grenade 15 Energy cost, Detector=Passive skill_

_Health: 350 HP: 1 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +3_

_Energy: 80/80: Recharge rate 15 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 100/100: Recharge rate 25 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 75/75 Hand Grenade Kills, 300/300 Rifle Kills, 1,000/1,000 Confirmed Kills, 3/3 Rescued Allies, 3/5 Commander Research Points, 6/6 Boss Kills, 1/1 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 130/50 Depots, 165/100 SCVs, 764/200 Marines, 202/50 Firebats, 58/10 Vultures, 9/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 34/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 34/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 44/30 Terran Research Files, 3/1 Rescued Allies, 4/2 Barracks, 4/3 Command Centers, 1/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 391,050_

_Gas: 152,700_

_Supply: 905/2,100_

_…_

Alright the good news was that I had nearly an hour to prepare for what was going to be the worst fight I've been in so far, I don't even know how long this supposed Anarchy Event was even going to last and I only had 5 hours until it got dark, that would introduce the Night Bosses on top of everything else.

"You know I was expecting to find you guys having a party and trashing my room while I was gone," I groaned once I reached Alpha base and found all of my Allies waiting for me, "maybe the SCVs having a derp-derp moment or something, not the end of the world where I had to suddenly coordinate the defense of four bases against attacks of unknown forces and strengths."

_That is actually incorrect Commander, Rouge Terran, Zerg and Protoss forces have been detected in route to our AO_

"Any idea how many are going to be landing within spitting distance of this Commander Center?"

_[ERROR] Not enough satellite detection capabilities to fully compute total number of enemy forces holding in orbit_

I sighed again, if it wasn't for the fact that I was in my suit, I would have bashed my head against the table for extra measure, "Is there anything you can tell me?"

_Will be able to monitor attack waves sixty seconds before landfall, along with identifying Boss level designations among the attacking forces_

"Aren't any Rouge Bosses supposed to come at night?" Now I was getting worried.

_Planet [ERROR] Unknown will be moving into an eclipse stage within fifty-seven minutes, therefore allowing Bosses to arrive among attack forces, duration of eclipse is unknown at this time_

Shit, not only was I going to have orbital landings to fight off, but orbital Bosses landing wherever they feel like on top of that, and if there was an eclipse involved that meant a whole bunch of bad guys were going to coming pouring over the ramp near Charlie base like it would at night anyway. At least I would have a brief warning of about where said landing would be arriving and where each Boss was going to show up, better than nothing to be honest.

I carefully examined the holo map that displayed the general layout out each base, it looked like Alpha base would suffer the most in the event of an enemy landing force arriving behind the nice wall of Bunkers at the ramps, Bravo, Charlie and Delta at least had Bunkers placed all the way around each base to defend against multiple direction. Because enemy fliers hadn't been encountered yet, I hadn't been worried that anything would be able to scale the cliff around Alpha base and now the orbital landings would render that null and void.

"I want each base to build another 10 Bunkers in the primary defensive line and 4 around each Command Center," it was cool watching it happen in real time as a whole bunch of SCVs got to work building, "every single Barracks with a Reactor is to start cranking Marines, the other Barracks need to get started on Firebat production, every Factory start on Vultures and I want it done now."

_Commander, be advised that during an Anarchy Event, Allies and subordinate mercenary forces are to remain in close proximity in defense of the Terran Commander_

You have got to be shitting me, there went like my entire plan if I couldn't have at least one Ally per base as I tried not to glare at Adjutant for telling me that tidbit now.

That would solve my problem of how many units I would keep for myself , that and I would be acting as the roving vanguard around Alpha base if a large enemy force were to suddenly drop in my own backyard. While it solved one problem, it also created a whole other problem, namely what was I going to do when an enemy Boss advanced on one of my other bases and that little game changer called Rally Cry wasn't available would mean that my bases would suffer a lot more losses. On one hand there was a decent number of fully garrisoned Bunkers with a sufficient number of troops posted at each base, however I had no idea on how many forsaken enemy units I would be facing within less than an hour, I didn't have Medics or a large enough economy to produce infinite units as fast as I could afford to lose them.

In an hour I could produce a lot of troops and with an additional 70 Bunkers being constructed meant that I had that much more of a chance of surviving, so I decided now was as good of time as any to spend some research points.

Rather than hoard all of the points needed for leveling up, I decided that if a bunch of Bosses were coming, than I could easily make up those points as I opened the Science Facility tab and selected the Commander Upgrades.

_Terran Commander Upgrade 4- Double Energy, Terran Commander gains double energy and lowered recharge rate, cost 4 of each research point._

_Terran Commander Upgrade 5- Shredder Grenade, doubles damage and radius of Hand Grenades, cost 5 of each research point. _

I didn't bother reading the ones next in line, I just selected those two and watched as my research point counter showed all three categories dropping by 9 points, though it looked like it would take each upgrade ten minutes or so.

Deciding that it was time to go for broke, I decided to Hell with and opened the other Research tab that also cost research points, I was going to need everything I could get, that and I could probably recover all of the points by the time morning rolled around, or when this Anarchy Event was over with.

_Zerg Bio Sample Research Level Two: Nanite Kit, Grants all vehicles the ability to carry +1 repair kit capable of recovering 25% health points, cost 2 Zerg Bio Sample research points. _

_Zerg Bio Sample Research Level Three: Armor Padding, grants all infantry -5% melee damage, cost 3 Zerg Bio Sample research points._

_Zerg Bio Sample Research Level Four: Bile Resistance, special armor plating construction that grants all units 10% resistance to acidic based attacks, cost 4 Zerg Bio Sample research points. _

_Zerg Bio Sample Research Level Five: Fortified Bunkers, interior design change of pre-existing Bunkers, allows +2 Bunker capacity, cost 5 Zerg Bio Sample research points. _

_Zerg Bio Sample Research Level Six: Mining Processors, improved SCV design, increases mineral and gas harvesting by 25%, cost 6 Zerg Bio Sample research points. _

Because there wasn't enough research points for the next upgrade, I had to stop there and moved on to the next tab.

_Protoss Chrystal Shard Research Level Two: Servo Modifications, improvement to existing infantry servos, resulting in +10% movement speed, cost 2 Protoss Chrystal Shard research points._

_Protoss Chrystal Shard Research Level Three: Focal Point, allows infantry based HUDs to identify weak points on hostile targets, cost 3 Protoss Chrystal Shard research points._

_Protoss Chrystal Shard Research Level Four: Vanadium Plating, infantry armor systems are granted +10% effectiveness against hostile attacks, cost 4 Protoss Chrystal Shard research points. _

_Protoss Chrystal Shard Research Level Five: Ultra Capacitors, all infantry weapon systems are granted +10% improvement, cost 5 Protoss Chrystal Shard research points. _

_Protoss Chrystal Shard Research Level Six: Run and Gun, all Terran units capable of firing while moving at -50% range loss, cost 6 Protoss Chrystal Shard research points._

No more research options were available to me after that.

_Terran Research File Research Level Two: Supply Depot Lift/Lower, now allows Depots to raise and lower themselves above and below ground, cost 2 Terran Research File research points. _

_Terran Research File Research Level Three: Stimpacks, allows infantry based units to self-inject a chemical supplement, grants 50% movement and attack speed for 60 seconds at a cost of 15 health points, cost 3 Terran Research File research points._

_Terran Research File Research Level Four: Projectile Accelerator, Bunkers have specially installed magnetic rail, increasing range of garrisoned units +1, cost 4 Terran Research File research points._

_Terran Research File Research Level Five: Replenishing Fabricator, Vultures now able to self-manufacture Spider Mines at 15 minerals/5 minutes cost, cost 5 Terran Research File research points._

_Terran Research File Research Level Six: Incinerator Gauntlets, Firebats are now granted +40% attack range with no damage loss, cost 6 Terran Research File research points. _

Well shit, the good news was that each category had its own progress bar and that meant in 50 minutes I would have a total of 15 new upgrades finished, each individual upgrade taking only ten minutes.

I did however just spend a grand whopping total of 29 research points from each category, leaving me with only 5 Zerg Bio Sample research points, 5 Protoss Crystal Shard research points and 15 Terran Research File research points, eh I was used to my bad luck coming back to bite me in the ass anyway, so odds were that my luck would mean that more than enough Bosses would show up for all of the squandered points to be regained.

Now that I think about it, I just fucking jinxed myself.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

_… (56 minutes later)…_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Rally Cry, Shredder Grenade, Detector_

_Health: 450 HP: 15 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +4_

_Energy: 175/175: Recharge rate 25 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 150/150: Recharge rate 50 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Three to Level Four Complete_

_Requirements: 75/75 Hand Grenade Kills, 300/300 Rifle Kills, 1,000/1,000 Confirmed Kills, 3/3 Rescued Allies, 5/5 Commander Research Points, 6/6 Boss Kills, 1/1 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four to Level Five [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 0/150 Hand Grenade Kills, 0/400 Rifle Kills, 0/2,500 Confirmed Kills, 3/5 Rescued Allies, 5/6 Commander Research Points, 0/10 Boss Kills, 1/3 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 152/50 Depots, 180/100 SCVs, 1,104/200 Marines, 246/50 Firebats, 71/10 Vultures, 26/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 5/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 5/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 15/30 Terran Research Files, 3/1 Rescued Allies, 8/2 Barracks, 4/3 Command Centers, 4/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 122,700_

_Gas: 117,200_

_…_

The eclipse was pretty epic to watch, if by epic to watch I mean watching the sun slowly disappear across the horizon like someone had pulled a giant visor across my field of vison from right to left at an alarming rate until the sun was blotted out and it was dark.

And then the night came to life.

First it was that terrible cry of mixed Zerg screeching, Protoss warping in from somewhere and Terran servos screaming as the edges of my mini-map practically lit up like a neon sign and then I made the mistake of looking up. My first thought was that the stars were really bright until I noticed that they were moving, by that point it finally registered in my head that those were not stars, but orbital re-entry platforms falling through the atmosphere, belonging to the Rouge Terran and Rouge Zerg I think because the Rouge Protoss were teleporting in from orbit no doubt.

Looking out in the direction of Charlie base, I could faintly distinguish muzzle flashes, plasma eruptions and faint neon green clouds way off in the distance, beyond the ramp leading straight towards Charlie base, good to know that the Rouges were equal opportunity killers instead of working together against a common foe.

_Commander, first enemy attack wave expected to land well outside sensor range_

"Keep me updated Adjutant, hopefully they kill each other off before mounting an assault on us." I closed my visor and grabbed my rifle off the rack next to me, my suit had just received the last upgrades, not that I was really worried about not having enough firepower or armor plating to be honest.

To be honest I wondered if I would have anywhere near enough troops to fight off these attack waves.

Even from where I was standing, a little over a kilometer and a half away, Charlie base was lit up like the Fourth of July with all kinds of tracer fire, gouts of fire, explosions, tell-tale plasma detonations and puffs of neon green light that signified some kind of Zerg attack.

"Jesus," I turned to look back at my motely group of Allies and assorted troops currently at my disposal, "this is going to be a long night."

_Commander, second enemy attack wave currently inbound, projected landing zone coordinates on your HUD at this time, be advised Rouge Terran forces detected_

Oh shit, a massive red circle appeared on my visor in the direction I was looking, smack dab between the ramps leading into Alpha base and my Command Center as a countdown timer was highlighted. That wasn't good, but I simply ordered all of my troops, three Allies and the maximum amount of units they could command, to back up and turn around to face the general landing zone. The good news was that I wouldn't have to worry about the concentrated fire pointed in that direction hitting anything, a particular upgrade had gone into effect that allowed all of the Supply Depots to drop beneath the ground, leaving only a dome of metal a foot high that could ignore friendly fire to an extent.

Of course with that little upgrade feature, my Depots could no longer generate ammunition or free energy, the tradeoff was that I had plenty of Bunkers nearby, including four of them around my Command Center that would fire on anything that landed. As much as I was worried about having my primary Command Center sitting there while I was off to the side and waiting for another 29 seconds for the Rouge Terran to land right in front of me, odds were they would go after anything that attacked them before going after a stationary building.

At least I hoped so.

_Commander, three Rouge Terran Boss IFF signatures have been detected, two of which are unknown_

"WHAT!"

The first series of orbital re-entry pods were slamming into the ground out in the middle of the highlighted circle, each one depositing 4 Ravagers, 2 Marines and 1 Firebat each as first five and then ten drop pods appeared. It was when four larger pods landed that deposited a pair of Vultures did things get interesting and when of course I say interesting, the bullets started flying.

Oh and really big grenades, flames and you get the point.

My shields were able to absorb most of the shrapnel and stray rounds sent my way, at least I hope they were only stray rounds as something else landed, well they didn't land to be honest, more like five flaming comets falling from the sky simply decelerated before hitting the ground and what was left hovering 50 feet off the ground really didn't make my life easier.

_…_

_Wraiths act as the primary aerial anti-air and anti-ground platform of any Terran force, able to utilize laser and missile batteries in conjunction with cloaking technologies, allowing Wraiths unprecedented stealth capabilities on the battlefield. _

_…_

For some reason these guys weren't cloaking and I wasn't complaining either because aside from myself, there wasn't a single Detector in operation as I decided to target the larger threat.

"Sgt Casari light'em up!"

It sure is nice to watch Rally Cry affect a bunch of War Pigs and regular Marines as the Wraiths exploded in balls of fire one by one, not before they were able to fire salvos of laser fire that could one-shot a freaking Firebat for crying out loud, good thing I had Barracks nearby generating as many replacement troops as fast as possible. Not that I was worried about the hovering gunships that should have utilized not only their superior speed in a series of fly-bys blasting anything that wasn't theirs, or the cloaking tech I was pretty sure came standard with these things.

Nope I had larger concerns when a trio of massive drop pods half the size of a Barracks slammed into the ground hard enough to have me rocking back and forth on my heels trying to avoid landing on my face and eating shit as the pods exploded to reveal what would probably have me rethinking a lot of things in the near feature.

_Commander, Rouge Terran Bosses landed within impact zone, warning, unidentified IFFs_

Namely my decision to have only a small handful of troops in an Anarchy Event where random Bosses were landing all over the place. The first one was easy to recognize, an Iron Monger with full armor plating and that gargantuan assault rifle, it had landed in the middle of the cluster and was the closest, I wasn't too worried about that guy, it was the other two bosses I didn't recognize that had me worried.

The one on the right for example was about ten feet shorter than Iron Monger, though it looked a lot bulkier and ruggedized with all of the armor plating and the combat shield it carried on one arm, the shield looked like it was two feet thick and adorned with bands of armor plating and spikes sticking out of it. It was about then that my HUD decided that now was a good time to give me a brief rundown on this new player as it and the other two bosses just stood there for some reason.

_…_

_Rouge Terran IFF signature recognized, behold the Centurion, a large assault force unit covered in additional armor plating and armed with a combat shield on one arm and a Vulture mounted grenade launcher on the opposite arm. Reported battlefield behavior places this unit as a defensive fighter, using the shield to stop small arms fire from hitting it in vital areas of the body as it advances with the grenade launcher lobbing explosive rounds around the edge of the shield, while moving at an incredibly slow rate in this maneuver, a Centurion is only vulnerable to flanking or air support. This particular unit is rare, deployed against heavily defended areas and operates as an effective anti-infantry platform as well as an anti-vehicle unit to an extent, recommended course of action calls for air support and long range weapons._

_…_

The one on the left of the Iron Monger was even shorter than the Centurion, not by much, but it was the smallest of the three and for obvious reasons it scared me more than the other two.

Because it had freaking flamethrowers.

_…_

_Rouge Terran IFF signature identified, this unit has been known to be called Ash, due to the fact that the volatile fuel mixture in its signature flamethrowers burn hot enough to incinerate Neosteel and leave nothing but ashes. This unit has heavy frontal armor plating rated to stop small arms fire and light vehicle fire, the only weakness being the fuel tanks upon its back that vent every few seconds to avoid catastrophic overload of the chemical mixture. Recommend course of action calls for long range weapons, air support and fast mobile ground units able to quickly move around._

_…_

This was not good. At all.

The good news was that until the last Rouge Terran units wandering around were wiped out, they didn't so much as twitch and that bought me enough time to send Lt. Hismallen and every single Vulture around behind them as I spread the rest of my guys around, imagine a diamond around these three Bosses with each one of my Allies and myself acting as the points. This way no matter what those Bosses would be getting attacked from every single direction, I mean because two of the three had an obvious weakness and the third could just take a shit load of abuse before it went down.

When the last Ravager got wasted by a couple Vandals, which was when things went to shit.

Immediately.

"OPEN FIRE!"

Right off the bat, Iron Monger charged towards Cpl Hanov and his Firebats, flattening three of them before it stopped and turned around to shoot back.

Ash simply stomped towards Sgt Casari and her troops, the pilot lights on each arm looked more dangerous than what my Firebats had for primary weapons as spikes ricocheted off its armor.

About now you ask where the Centurion was heading, well I'll give you two guesses and the first one doesn't count if you thought it was heading towards Lt. Hismallen and his buddies, nope, this Boss decided to come towards me with that big ass shield raised up to stop anything we were shooting at it as three Marines to my left were turned to confetti as that grenade launcher fired.

_419…300…252…107…68…000_

Shit, reloading, duck to avoid the grenade launched towards me, oh wait, the Centurion was aiming for the Bunkers behind me and was just wading through my 50 Marines and 10 Firebats like we weren't even there. Because the thing was ignoring my troops and myself respectively, it was enough time to get a bead on this because of a particular upgrade that allowed ground units to focus fire on the particular weakness of an enemy target. Before, whenever a hundred or so Marines opened fire on something, I'd venture a guess that 50% of the spikes fired at it would hit something remotely vital, the other half would either embed themselves in armor plating, carom off said plating or hit other parts of the target that wouldn't do much except annoy it.

Now it was like watching airbrushing techniques over a stenciled drawing, for the most part, the shield was ignored for the most part as the exposed arm with the massive grenade launcher, the head and a little bit of the leg joints were targeted instead, earlier against other regular units, most of the killing hits were headshots or critical points in the armor. Good news was that twice the number of kills could be made with each magazine before having to reload and accuracy was much better, though at this range accuracy meant squat when your target is half the size of a Barracks less than twenty meters away.

Iron Monger was the first to spontaneously explode after enough grenades slammed into the thing, as spectacular as it was to watch, the real treat was when Ash paused for a few seconds to vent as a particular ally armed with a flamethrower got close enough to ignite said vent. I made a mental note to give Firebats jump packs and teleportation tech to become virtually unstoppable as the behemoth that singlehandedly wiped out thirty ground units in less than two minutes, luckily the resulting explosion didn't kill Cpl. Hanov or else I would have been down a rather handy ally.

Last to go down was the Centurion, because anyone in front of it was doing exactly jack to this thing's shield, what few rounds slipped past weren't doing enough damage to amount to much, though with the other two Bosses taken down, it came under fire from every direction. Which was interesting to watch as it stopped pulverizing that Bunker somewhere behind me, turned around and started firing at something else as it presented it's exposed back to me.

Now I was able to put the hurt on this thing, while everyone else used a rifle, flamethrower or a vehicle grade grenade launcher, I was busy tossing as many hand grenades as I could at the thing.

Because I had no idea who got the killing shot, with the sheer volume of spikes, grenades and napalm sent towards the Centurion it was hard to say, but the resulting explosion was spectacular. Before it "died" I guess you could say, it dropped to one knee, the shattered remains of the massive shield falling away in pieces as sparks began arcing all over the thing, then segments of armor either crumbled or shot off the main body like lids off a bunch of pressure cookers. It was around then that the ammunition this thing carried started cooking off rapidly, turning the arm with the launcher into confetti before the chain reaction followed the arm back to the shoulder and into the body.

Then it exploded.

One minute I had been standing there tossing one of my last grenades at the newest Rouge Terran Boss I had just encountered and the next I was looking up at the concerned faces of Sgt. Casari, Cpl. Hanov and a few other Marines standing around me.

Acting as a shield if the bright orange tracers soaring overhead were any indication on my current situation, why was I laying down?

_Commander, you have sustained injuries, armor systems standing by at 82%, life support stabilizing at 63%, estimated combat effectiveness at 78%, how would you like to proceed?_

"How long?" It took the combined strength of Sgt. Casari and Cpl. Hanov with their power armor to help me back up onto my feet, the armor display in the corner of my HUD showing a few highlighted areas that were a mixture of blaring orange and mostly yellow for the most part.

_Half an hour tops sir._

Ugh, my head was killing me, but I was able to stand on my own and take a gander around to see how Alpha base was doing in the thirty minutes since I've been knocked on my ass.

What was left of Alpha base that is.

All of the carefully arranged Bunkers at the bottom of the ramps and even the ones leading up the ramps were all destroyed, leaving the ones at the top still intact, simply because there was an SCV at each one repairing them as fast as they were taking damage and the sheer amount of incoming fire was mind blowing, leaving the question to exactly how many bad guys there were trying to come up the ramps.

"Adjutant give me numbers, how many?" I picked up my rifle off the ground and checked the mag, _136_, so I opted to reload as I walked towards the ramps.

_Local forces have defeated 1,274 enemy combatants in regards to your location, in your absence both Rouge Zerg and Rouge Protoss forces have sent attack waves that have been repelled, would you like to review captured video footage?_

"Nope, in fact give me a sit rep on the other bases." I had reached the first Bunker and looked around to take a peek and when I say peek naturally I meant blast the shit out of the first thing I saw wearing something other than blue at point blank range.

_Bravo has sustained 23% casualty loss with 9% defensive structure loss, reports indicate 381 enemy combatants in the last thirty-one minutes have been neutralized, Delta reports 19% casualty loss with no defensive losses and 406 enemy combatants neutralized at this time sir._

"What about Charlie base Adjutant?" I ignored the status reports scrolling through my visor and focused instead on blasting the next Rouge Terran Marine that stepped into view, even as bad of shape I was in I could still pull off a visor shot at this range, though I am fairly certain it was the suit making minor corrections for me that really helped.

_Charlie base has ceased to send automated reports seventeen minutes and twenty-nine seconds ago, last known reports of 3,110 enemy combatants neutralized, 86% casualty loss with 74% defensive structure loss and 60% productivity structure loss, it is to be believed that Charlie has been overrun sir._

_Shit_, now that was bad, I glanced over in the direction where Charlie base was and saw only an orange and blueish haze from that direction, fires no doubt as most of the status reports from Charlie on my visor were red and were not updating at all.

I toggled my Rally Cry and ducked behind the Bunker I was standing next to in order to grab some more ammo before I remembered something.

"Adjutant, how many forces do I have in the vicinity of Alpha base?" I ducked to avoid a stream of Impaler fire when I stepped back around the Bunker to toss a grenade at a trio of advancing Rouge Terran Firebats.

_Sgt. Casari and Cpl. Hanov have been able to supplement any combat losses from nearby Barracks facilities while Lt. Hismallen has sustained significant damage to both his vehicle and person, rendering him unable to function at this time._

"Wait, what?" I looked around to take a count of roughly how many guys I had, noticing that I was down to about half the number of troops I had started out with.

Sgt. Casari and her remaining War Pigs were off to my left shredding the wave of Rouge Terran forces marching up the ramp on that side while Cpl. Hanov was doing pretty much the same thing over to my right with a meager handful of surviving Devil Dogs and Firebats, but against Rouge Zerg forces coming up the other side. Throw in the usual batch of Marines, Firebats and what few Vultures survived this long, I noticed that only about three Vandals were still active with a fourth just sitting there, no wait my HUD identified that was Lt. Hismallen, the nearby SCV was repairing a different Vulture so the green status light of his Vulture confused my until I noticed the red bio signs.

Like single digit low, I ignored the gunfire and assorted mayhem going on behind me and ran over to the Vulture bike currently sitting on side, scarred from various bullet impacts, a couple gouges and some plasma burns, but otherwise intact.

If it wasn't for the fact that peering through the driver's canopy and seeing Lt. Hismallen slumped over the controls unconscious with a whole lot of blood that was clearly his splattered all over the place, I would have thought he was taking a nap or something, that or else he was actually dead. According to both the vital signs on my HUD and from his status display he was still alive, barely I might add, but alive nonetheless and that was important.

Even though I couldn't use my medical kit on anyone or anything else that didn't stop me from at least trying, turns out his Vulture bike was keeping him alive by remaining locked up and stationary, that and the emergency stimulants being pumped into his body were literally the only thing keeping him alive at this point as I gathered all of the remaining forces I had that were standing out of range of the fight going on and headed back to the Bunkers.

"Cpl. Hanov if you would Rally Cry that would be great," I watched as the reinforcements I brought closer were able to add to the amount of return fire heading down both ramps as I looked carefully at the Bunkers, "we need to give the SCVs time to repair these Bunkers completely."

Glancing back at Lt. Hismallen and the small posse of Vandals and Marines I left as a token defense I looked back down the ramps as the amount of bullets and claws coming at my face had diminished somewhat.

The sheer number of corpses was staggering, for some reason an enemy corpse will lay on the ground for about five minutes before it would no longer register as even being there anymore, yeah it was mindboggling to think about, but it was really mind blowing when the bodies were piling up so fast that they were making small mountains. The whole idea of climbing over the fallen bodies of your allies to reach your enemy took on a whole new meaning, that and it barely slowed them down at all.

There were also half a dozen glowing orbs of each color scattered around the base of the ramps, the enemy forces would either step around them or avoid them at the last second, but the occasional spike or grenade explosion would cause one or two of them to roll around a little bit.

It was then that I remembered what I needed in order to level up and it was all laying right there, all I needed to do was clear out the attacking forces long enough to collect the Research Points, a total of 60 each mind you just at Alpha base. If I could reach the next level and hopefully get Medics, I could have one of them take care of Lt. Hismallen ASAP and get him back in the fight of course there was also the chance I could waste a whole lot of forces just trying to reach them and finding out I wouldn't receive Medics when I leveled up, leaving me in a deeper hole than I was already in or worse, I could lose the rest of my Allies.

"Focus fire on the closest targets," I stepped back around the Bunker and decided to help pick off some ranged enemies, "we need to hold out long enough."

_Long enough for what boss?_

I glanced over at Cpl. Hanov and then over at Sgt. Casari, who were the only ones including myself that were not firing.

"A miracle I guess."

With that I kept on firing, holding down on the trigger until the mag ran dry and I had to reload, the slots where ammo dropped out of the Bunkers was arm's length away as the pile of empty magazines at my feet started getting bigger as everyone knuckled down and kept shooting.

It was when the pile of magazines was up to my knees that the Rouge Terran abruptly stopped, in fact I was confused as I looked over in time to see the last few Rouge Zerg getting incinerated before I looked out towards the bottom of the ramps to see what was going on.

The Rouge Protoss had arrived, sending both the Rouge Zerg and Rouge Terran into a three way brawl of guns, claws and psi blades. The whole time a vast majority of the each approaching force would beeline right up the ramps and a small fraction of each force would take notice of each other and start attacking, though when I say taking notice of each other, I really mean bumping into each other before realizing that something hostile was right there. Now with a third party thrown into the mix, all three beelines were intersected before they could reach the ramps, thus turning the very area I wanted to clear out to recover all of those Research Points into the middle of very big fight.

Meaning they had forgotten completely about me and my combined forces sitting at the top of the ramps they were all fighting to get up first in order to get to me.

"Reload and resupply," the words were hardly out of my mouth as Marines and Firebats practically marched over to the Bunkers and started patiently waiting for ammo and fuel to appear as a few others went off in the direction of the Barracks as my Vultures headed towards the Factory sitting right over there to collect ammo, "rotate out the wounded for fresh troops, heal up with whatever med kits you got and stay frosty."

_Commander, all orbital signatures are decreasing rapidly, estimates of Anarchy Event coming to an end in less than one hour are highly likely._

"Wonderful, anymore Boss IFFs that you can detect?"

_At this time there are only the ones landing well outside the optimal range of any bases within this area, likelihood of them reaching any base before sunrise expected to be minimal._

Okay, so no more trio of Bosses landing in my backyard anymore, I'll take everything I could get, even a nice timer informing me of when this madness would stop as I stepped back to take a look at my HUD for a better picture of things.

Because according to the stats listed, I hadn't lost a Command Center yet and with Adjutant telling me that Charlie base had been kyboshed sometime while I was out cold, something didn't add up and it had me wondering what was going on. That and there was still the fact that both Bravo and Delta bases had seen very little action I guess you could say compared to the epic fight going on both here and before Charlie base had gone offline.

Well Charlie base had been directly at the base of the ramp where I guess a majority of the Rouge forces were coming from, it had acted as a speedbump for a short amount of time before it had gotten completely overwhelm. Bravo and Delta were way off to the sides, each protected by a narrow chokepoint of impassable cliffs and Bunkers, that and in a straight line from Charlie base was Alpha, so maybe they were simply taking the path of least resistance in order to get here for some reason.

"Adjutant, were is the Command Center from Charlie base?"

_Commander, Charlie base Command Center serial number AAJ447 is no longer presently responding to any attempts of communication and all nearby forces have been defeated so there is no confirmation that the Command Center has survived._

"Could it have lifted off and moved elsewhere?" Now I was getting concerned.

_Negative Commander that command prompt had not been activated since its original departure from Alpha base._

"Well scan it again and tell me why it says that I still have four Command Centers."

A glance back down the ramps revealed that it was still an epic slugfest I wanted no part of, couldn't tell who was winning or losing the most, didn't honestly care as I grabbed some more ammo and energy.

Bunkers have a series of slots around the entire building, each corner if you would, that had four vertical racks where a fresh magazine of Impaler spikes would land every five seconds, handy when every single Marine and myself needed ammo desperately as I turned to watch how the Firebats reloaded. Below each rack for Impaler magazines was a single nozzle that each Firebat that stepped up to the nozzle would attached a hose from somewhere on their waist and wait ten seconds for the tanks to fill up before the next one in line stepped up and did the same thing.

Vultures were different, they had the materials used by the fabricators built into their Vultures loaded directly through a slot in the top of each bike from a mechanical arm that reach out of the side of the Factory, again at each corner of the building, considering how these mechanical arms were at just the right height, it made me wonder how other vehicles would receive ammo.

Lt. Hismallen was still KO'd and unresponsive, not even that would change unless either a Medic or a Medivac showed out of the blue and healed his biological wounds, the damage to his Vulture bike had already been repaired by an SCV some time ago.

_Commander, scans indicated that Charlie base Command Center serial number AAJ447 is no longer operational due to extensive damage and loss of power twenty-six minutes ago, however has returned to minimal operations twenty minutes and forty-eight seconds ago through unknown means._

"How does that happen?" I knew for a fact that I lacked any kind of self-repairing function for my buildings.

_Unknown at this time Commander it could also mean that Charlie base Command Center AAJ447 is in fact no destroyed._

Now that I doubted very much if the behavior of enemy forces I had seen so far were any kind of indicator, they would first attack anything that moved or fought back before going after the next closest thing and they wouldn't stop until it was dead or razed to the ground.

_SIR, INCOMING ZERG!_

A loud screech snapped me out of my thoughts as I stepped around the Bunker to see if one of the attacking forces had pushed through and were coming up the ramps.

No, the three sided melee down below was still going full swing and it wasn't until the Marine standing next to me abruptly started firing upwards three seconds before a glob of green goo slammed into that same Marine as I looked up as well.

Fuck me.

_…_

_Scanning, positive identification confirmed, alias Infestor Lord._

_Another Rouge Zerg Boss has been encountered, this particular unit is not a primary attack unit, but rather a support unit capable of providing friendly units with several different support options. The first being its passive Detector capability that allows nearby friendly units to locate Cloaked, Burrowed or hidden enemies. This unit is also known for spraying hostile forces with a slime based pathogen that can rapidly infect biological units, utilizing this same method of infection against buildings and other structures. While this unit has no direct method of combat engagement, it is known to possess substantial health points and no armor, though because it can fly around infecting ground troops, it is often targeted immediately. Recommended use of aircraft or mechanical ground based forces and long range weapons to combat._

_…_

What the fuck? I honestly think I was looking at some kind of mutated Overlord looking thing with at least half of a Brood Queen sticking out of the top as it just floated there high above my head launching spitballs at random.

Slimed based pathogen capable of infecting biological units. Rapidly.

It was the spikes ricocheting off my right shoulder that made me realize how rapidly that stuff worked as I turned to find myself looking at what was no doubt an Infested Marine.

Armed with an Impaler rifle less than ten feet away, for some reason my HUD decided that now was not the time to launch into yet another narrative on this creature as I lifted my rifle and blasted it point blank for about fifty or so rounds until it stopped moving or twitching I should say before I looked around to see how things were going.

Considering how that Infestor Lord had infected about fifteen or so of my Marines and a single Firebat in the time it took for everyone else to capitalize on the fact it was a flying stationary target and let it rip at said flying target that was easily twice the size of a regular Overlord without any kind of armor or energy shields. Of course when the damn thing finally died and subsequently exploded, all the blood and guts came raining down on top of me and my troops, the Zerg Research Points hit the ground, bounced a couple times and then rolled on down the hill to join the rest of them.

"Adjutant, didn't you just tell me that all Bosses would be unable to reach my location before sunrise?" I ran an armored gauntlet across the front of my visor with hopes to clean it off and basically caused a bigger mess.

_Affirmative Commander, no other Rouge Bosses will be able to reach your current location before sunrise, unless they are capable of flight_

Why that little smartass, "Acknowledged."

Okay, now that was a new Zerg type Boss I was glad wouldn't come out except at night, just the thought of a whole bunch of those things attacking a base or worse, a patrol out exploring would be disastrous, an enemy that could infect and turn their enemy against themselves would be more of a nuisance than anything.

It was about then that I decided to see how the brutal fight downstairs was going and it was then I got my sixth shock of the night.

What? First was the Anarchy Event, second was having three Rouge Terran Bosses landing in the middle of my base, third was getting knocked, fourth was Charlie base getting toasted and fifth was having an Infestor Lord swooping in, I can still keep track of things.

Nope, number six was watching a new Rouge Zerg unit appear and basically turn the tide of the fight going on down below in favor of the Zerg.

_…_

_Rouge Zerg Infested Terrans identified, be advised that this particular ground unit is a self-exploding suicide unit, while having decent health points and no ranged attack, this unit can deal impressive damage against both hostile ground units and enemy structure. How these creatures come into play is done by having a Zerg unit capable of infesting a Terran Command Center that has been heavily damaged but not destroyed. Recommended long range weapons and aircraft be used to combat these forces and to eliminate them before they enter melee range._

_…_

So that explained a few things, I was honestly expecting Banelings or something to show up first, but no, this makes much more sense.

With these new suicide units on their side, it looked like the Rouge Zerg would be pulling ahead in this particular fight, a single Infested Terran could wipe out a small group of closely knit enemy units and against the Protoss that relied heavily on energy shielding to protect them from harm, the resulting explosion would either takeout said shields or outright kill said Protoss units. Against the Rouge Terran they faired about as well as I thought they would against Infested Terran units, very poorly I might add, kind of a real eye opener for when I started encountering Banelings in the future.

"All units, target the Infested with extreme prejudice," I knew I wouldn't have to wait long if the growing number of Rouge Zerg was any indicator, "get ready for a Zerg Rush people."

Sure enough, once the remaining Rouge Terran and Rouge Protoss were wiped out, the Rouge Zerg could turn their undivided attention against me, not to mention they had a new player on the field they were using, sparingly mind you, but using nonetheless.

The thing with Zerg and I am certain I've said this already, is that they thrive in melee combat with overwhelming numbers against a smaller enemy, now I still had four Bunkers and two Allies and hopefully enough troops to make enough of a difference, that and they could only come up two ramps that were literally side by side, though I really wish it was only one instead of two because now I had to divide my attention between the two.

I needed Medics, Siege Tanks and Battlecruisers in that order and right now would be nice, but I guess I'll just have to make do with what I had, if only I had more troops.

This fight was nothing compared to the last few nights of Night Raids, for one it wasn't just one type of Zerg coming at me, it was Zombies, Zerglings and Infested units, both Infested Marines and Infested Terrans in much larger numbers as well, then again I did have more than just Marines as well.

I could even call down Merc reinforcements, which I did, right fucking now.

A pair of Vandals, four War Pigs and two Devil Dogs may not sound like much to anyone in a fight like this, but coupled with the fact that a fresh wave of troops of my Barracks and Factory had arrived as well made all the difference in the world to me because I could only kill enemy units so fast with what I had before they could overwhelm my last line of defense. The great thing about Vultures and Vandals respectively is that that they make great fire support with a much longer range and damage output that can just about one shot anything encountered so far, the great news is that they can easily one shot Infested Terrans.

Which was awesome because the doubled edge sword to having suicide units embedded in your ranks is that when they die, so does everything around them.

Which also reminded me that my Vultures could create an endless supply of Spider Mines now that I thought about it as I order my Vandals to manufacture a bunch and then start placing just in front of the Bunkers, on the side facing the ramp thank you very much.

Granted each Spider Mine would be ejected from some kind of mine launcher under the near of each hover bike a short distance before it would dig itself into the ground by using its mechanical legs until it was buried. Each one would show up on my HUD through the use of an IFF tag for about ten seconds before something within range of its sensors set it off. Having seen Spider Mines in action before, granted against small groups of enemies or against single units, I was in awe of the sheer carnage these things could cause against large numbers of closely packed troops in a very limited area.

First the Spider Mines would pop out of the ground and skitter towards the nearest enemy target, usually one that approached the edge of the kill zone where the combined fire was the most focused, just at the maximum range of my Firebats and Devil Dogs. Then they would either stop directly in front of the selected enemy unit in order to explode in a massive fireball of shrapnel and flying body parts or sometimes the target that Spider Mine had selected would be killed by a random spike or grenade and the Spider Mine would patiently await for the next nearest target to appear.

The only things I could compare Spider Mines to, in terms of raw explosive power mind you, would be hand grenades, Vulture grenades and now Infested Terrans the Rouge Zerg were throwing at me because the lucky bastards had infected one of my Command Centers.

_Commander, enemy forces in the area are dwindling, it would appear that this Anarchy Event is coming to an end_

"Great news Adjutant," I swore as I ducked some incoming Impaler fire from an Infested Marine lumbering its way up the ramp, "any idea how much longer?"

_Estimating enemy forces within the area, compiled with the fact that the eclipse will be ending shortly, it is my best estimate that things will come to an end in eight minutes_

"Fuck yeah, I'll take it." A grenade cleared things up momentarily before another beeping Spider Mine popped out of the ground and sought the next batch of Rouge Zerg, sending a few severed limbs raining down on my position.

"We need to hold just a little longer guys," I didn't know if I was saying to psych myself up or let the others know, "this'll end and we can get ready for the night with a few hours to spare, piece of cake."

_Roger that sir_

_We got this boss_

I glanced back at the motionless figure of Lt. Hismallen and turned back to the slaughter going on below, moving aside for a Vulture to creep forward and deposit another Spider Mine to add to the mayhem.

Guess my shitty luck was working with me for once.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Rally Cry, Shredder Grenade, Detector_

_Health: 450 HP: 15 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +4_

_Energy: 175/175: Recharge rate 25 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 150/150: Recharge rate 50 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four to Level Five [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 107/150 Hand Grenade Kills, 400/400 Rifle Kills, 2,138/2,500 Confirmed Kills, 3/5 Rescued Allies, 5/6 Commander Research Points, 10/10 Boss Kills, 1/3 Commander Mission_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 152/75 Depots, 171/125 SCVs, 986/350 Marines, 204/70 Firebats, 58/30 Vultures, 26/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 5/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 5/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 15/30 Terran Research Files, 3/1 Rescued Allies, 6/2 Barracks, 4/3 Command Centers, 3/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 327,950_

_Gas: 185,700_

_…_

The good news was that the Anarchy Event ended just like Adjutant said it would, after I thought the bright glow off to my left was Cpl Hanov and his flamethrower wielding minions were roasting things before I realized that nobody was firing and I mean literally no one was firing.

Having just spent the last however long exposed to nonstop full auto gunfire, screeches, explosions and fire crackling and other noise that had become background noise I hadn't actually thought about before, who knew the sound of a hundred empty Impaler magazines hitting the ground would sound like an avalanche of stones rolling down a mountain?

With the rapid return of the suns it was awesome to watch the darkness stretched out before me light up, not only because the sunlight was getting brighter, no, because the Rouge units were bursting into flames. As far as my eyes could see and the visor scanners in my HUD could detect, burning Rouge units were dying, hundreds of them every so far and probably thousands more beyond my line of sight as first they stopped moving and fell to the ground, burning away until the fires slowly extinguished under the harsh glare of the sunlight, a mockery to all the hardships me and my forces had been subjected to all this time, now suddenly gone.

Lots of my troops were cheering, mostly fist pumping and acknowledging that they had survived this bloodbath through the same generic comments and shouts as I finally lowered the muzzle of my Impaler rifle, the muzzle and barrel assembly glowing an angry fire engine cherry red as I raised my visor and looked around.

_Commander, Anarchy Event and the eclipse have ended, what are your orders?_

That sobered me up as I took in the battle scarred Bunkers, damaged troops on the verge of life and death, Lt. Hismallen still unresponsive, the literally carpet of disintegrating corpses stretched out as far as the eye could see, smoldering ruins of various buildings, craters and dissolving goo and the like.

A glance at the round counter on my Impaler read a measly _128_ as I mechanically reloaded and stowed my rifle over my shoulder, wading through thigh deep magazines before I stood at the top of the ramps, Bunker to either side of me as I sighed.

"We got work to do people," that stopped the celebrations going on behind me as Sgt Casari and Cpl Hanov stepped up next to me, "Adjutant how long until nightfall?"

_Two hours, seventeen minutes and forty seconds Commander_

More than enough time for what I needed to do.

"Rebuild the destroyed Bunkers, rotate out wounded troops for fresh ones and collect every single Research Point and have them delivered to the Science Facility," I walked forward another few steps in order to step around a few dormant Spider Mines, "halt unit production at all Barracks for now and have all bases repair any damaged structures ASAP."

A brief examination of my forces stats n my HUD revealed a rather sober issue, according to reports I still had four operational Command Centers, which meant I had something to take care.

"Sgt Casari, have your men resupply and get ready to move out, you as well Cpl Hanov," I watched as a surge of SCVs zipped past me to begin construction of multiple Bunkers or to start gathering glowing Research Points, "we need to take of something first."

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Rally Cry, Shredder Grenade, Detector_

_Health: 550 HP: 45 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +5_

_Energy: 200/200: Recharge rate 50 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 150/150: Recharge rate 50 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four to Level Five [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 107/150 Hand Grenade Kills, 400/400 Rifle Kills, 2,138/2,500 Confirmed Kills, 3/5 Rescued Allies, 5/6 Commander Research Points, 0/10 Boss Kills, 1/3 Commander Mission_

_… _

_Blue Force Terran Level Three to Level Four Complete_

_Requirements: 152/75 Depots, 171/125 SCVs, 986/350 Marines, 204/70 Firebats, 58/30 Vultures, 26/6 Science Facility Upgrades, 55/30 Zerg Bio Samples, 55/30 Protoss Crystal Shards, 65/30 Terran Research Files, 3/1 Rescued Allies, 6/2 Barracks, 4/3 Command Centers, 3/1 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Four_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Level Four to Level Five [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 152/90 Depots, 171/150 SCVs, 986/400 Marines, 204/85 Firebats, 0/25 Medics, 58/50 Vultures, 0/20 Hellions, 26/10 Science Facility Upgrades, 55/40 Zerg Bio Samples, 55/40 Protoss Crystal Shards, 65/40 Terran Research Files, 3/1 Rescued Allies, 6/4 Barracks, 4/5 Command Centers, 3/4 Factory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Five_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 327,950_

_Gas: 185,700_

_…_

The location of Charlie Base was pockmarked with smoldering craters and areas of scorched dirt, not to mention wreckage that was slowly deteriorating before my eyes at an unreal rate, but that wasn't what held my attention.

After amassing enough troops to take care of this little errand, the march from Alpha had been short and to the point, no resistance had been encountered on the way as reports from Adjutant were reviewed quickly, mostly that Delta and Bravo base had escaped almost completely unscathed, almost because each base had lost a couple Bunkers and respectively the units garrisoned inside of them.

Every single building had been demolished, most of the wreckage and fading corpses in my standard blue colors were sporting a variety of claw marks, bullet holes and plasma burns while everything else in Rouge colors had been perforated with spikes, shrapnel and fire damage. It looked like Charlie base had given as good as they got, the sheer amount of carnage was impressive, compared to what Alpha looked like, it seemed like this is what a miniature apocalypse looked like as I carefully stepped forward.

As much as I wanted to rush in and get this over with, I was more concerned about Burrowed enemy units, namely Infested Terrans, so slow and steady was the word as I kept a close eye on my Detector.

Both Sgt Casri and Cpl Hanov were flanking me on either side, their respective forces spread out in a skirmish line with twenty Vultures bringing up the rear as part of my force, the half dozen SCVs tagging along for repair or Research Point retrieval, not that I expected there to be any, but it never hurt to have a couple along for the ride. Speaking of which, I had managed to level up both myself and my forces once enough Research Points were collected and needless to say I was pretty pissed off that the Night Bosses had only attacked Alpha base, so thoughts of gathering Research Points from other bases had been dashed, but I had more than enough to upgrade.

I could build Medics and Hellions, Medics costing 75 minerals and 25 gas in 10 minutes, not bad, but they could only be built at Barracks that didn't have Reactors installed. Hellions in my mind were too costly, at 100 minerals and 75 gas in 15 minutes had me thinking roughly how long it would take for higher tier units to be produced and I didn't like it.

Every single Barracks without a Reactor had been order to mass produce Medics, I left orders with Adjutant to have Lt. Hismallen healed as soon as the first Medic was finished, it made me happy now that I could heal my wounded units, giving me an edge in combat I had been sorely lacking earlier. Not sure why, but I ordered every single Factory to produce ten Hellions each so I could have enough to not only meet the level requirements, but to see if they could be used effectively.

Hellions in my mind were glorified Firebats racing around on wheels, never really used them much in the game aside from a few missions where they were allowed to shine, but only because they were fast, could really lay the hurt on enemy ground troops or incinerate an entire enemy base with enough time, but against aerial units or long range heavy hitters, they would be mincemeat.

No Medics or Hellions had been built yet, I hadn't waited around long enough for that because I wanted to take out the Infested Command Center before nightfall, hopefully to take away a key advantage the Rouge Zerg would have against me. Not only that, but I was wondering if I would have enough time to rebuild the Bunkers, garrison enough troops and hold out before it got dark again, though from what I was seeing that appeared to be unlikely due to the fact that all of the wreckage laying around would make construction impossible until it disappeared.

That and the purple carpet of creep making things difficult.

Walking across creep made me really nauseous for some reason, like one would get motion sickness riding on a train or standing on a ship sailing through a storm, but the fact remained that if I paused every few feet to collect myself, something mean and nasty would be able to sneak up on me faster and the last thing I wanted to do was die, nearly done that once already and no thank you. Call it what you want, but I still think something about the creep was messing with not only me, but my troops as well, I mean you'd think that Zerg creep would have some kind of passive ability to what it could recognize as friend or foe, I honestly think there was some kind of speed bonus to friendly Zerg units and some kind of movement penalty for non-Zerg units traversing across any kind of creep.

Why? Well because the Zerg rushing towards me were moving a heck of a lot faster than previous Zerg.

"Let'em have it!" I was standing in the second row, so the pair of War Pigs in front of me dropped down to one knee and started firing, the high pitch screech of more than twenty Zerglings popping up out of the ground was enough to raise the hair on the back of my neck as I let loose with my own rifle.

Once the rabid attack dogs of the Swarm got within range of my skirmish line, more importantly Cpl Hanov and his Firebats, it was pretty much over as the maelstrom of napalm and modified Firebat tech improving said weapons came into play.

Three Infested Terrans and nearly a dozen Infested Marines had joined into the fray, though charging recklessly towards a large group of armed combat suits all facing the same direction were all of the weapons were pointed made that a futile effort at best. With all of the Vultures bringing up the rear, the fight was pretty much over before it started, aside from a few more dents in a Devil Dog from a Zergling and a few hits on some of my Marines from hostile Impaler fire, there were no casualties to speak of.

"We take it slow people," I spent more time watching the edges of my Detector monitor on my HUD than I paid attention to where I was going, "shoot anything that moves."

_Copy that boss_

_Affirmative sir_

It was when a giant red blip appeared on my HUD that had me really nervous, cautious and incredibly wary of any subterranean surprises that would either explode or come up swinging foot long scythe blades before the Infested Command Center came into view.

To be honest I kind of threw up in my mouth a little bit when I first saw it.

The reason I hadn't seen it from a distance was because of the smoke, like a thick fog really that cut visibility down to like fifty feet, my floodlights had activated automatically along with everyone else's since we stepped foot into this soup. So when the massive form of what used to be one of my Command Centers came into view, it was a massive ship appearing out of thin air in the dead of night, absolutely terrifying when details could be picked out as lots of lights began playing over the surface of this thing.

_…_

_Infested Command Centers are one of a few structures that enemy units can repurpose for their own uses, in this instance Rouge Zerg were able to destroy most of the facilities located within the Command Center that would combat the rate of possible infection, leaving the facility vulnerable. Once infestation has been completed, bio-organic creep modified for unknown purposes would seep into everything, creating an organic based form of power and control over the damaged hardware of the facility, while other forms of Zerg biomass is added into automated manufacturer processors. _

_Similar to how Zerg Larva is morphed into any strain of the Zerg Swarm, biomass is added with Terran genes and tech, the result typically tends to be Infested Terrans, an unstable biological unit of the Zerg Swarm that proves to be a rather effective suicide bomber. Proven to rather effective against hard targets such as buildings and vehicles, deployment of Infested Terrans tend to rare as most overrun positions tend to either Lift Off all capable structures and relocate them to another location._

_…_

Okay, nice to know that all of those little reminder videos means that Adjutant is learning, that and I need to set up some kind of protocol to avoid having an entire base wiped out again.

As I was saying, the entire thing was partially covered with pulsing sacs half the size of a Supply Depot, creep and dare I say massive tentacles that were covered in rows of wicked looking spines. If you ignored the fact that most of the biological parts were either twitching or pulsing to some unknown rhythm that was kind of sickening to look at, and what parts of the actual Command Center you could actually see were heavily damaged from various claw marks and some kind of acid damage.

That Infestor Lord from earlier must've done a flyby before swinging by Alpha base after it made certain it had completely infested this Command Center that had to have received a real beating prior to that.

"Alright, torch the fucking thing and let's get out of here." The order was hardly past my lips before the Firebats moved up and got to work, Cpl Hanov and his Devil Dogs hanging back to stay near me as for some reason my Marines were not firing.

"Waiting for an engraved invitation?" I turned to look at Sgt Casari standing a little ways away from me with all of her War Pigs and Marines just standing there, "Well blast it already."

_Roger_

"You guys too," I gestured at the Vultures sitting motionless behind me, "I want to get out of here."

Infested Command Centers, as I learned, can not only take a lot of punishment in order to be destroyed, but turns out they have a nasty little surprise in store.

As the whole thing finally succumbed to the sheer amount of damage my units were doing against this thing, a faint humming echo could be heard about a second before the whole thing collapsed in a shower of gore and flying metal as something burst out of the center of the corpse I guess you could call it?

Four Infested Terrans came tumbling out of the oozing center of the ruined wreckage that was half organic and half machine, I noticed them about half a second before everyone started shooting at them and by then it was nearly too late.

Eleven Firebats and a single Marine were killed from the resulting explosions of three Infested Terrans that managed to detonate before they could be killed from incoming fire, the last one had been fortunately killed by a Vulture grenade before it could throw itself into the ranks of troops screaming a guttural cry.

_"WE LIVE FOR THE SWARM!"_

Of course I now know firsthand how devastating these things are against my troops, they took four of mine for every one of theirs, which did not bode well for me.

"We're returning to base," I sighed after glancing in the direction that I knew where that rubble covered ramp was and decided against it for now, "we don't have enough time or troops to go exploring so close to dark."

_Commander, Lt. Hismallen has been returned to full effectiveness and is awaiting orders_

Relief like you wouldn't believe swept over me at that update from Adjutant.

"All the more reason to get back then," I turned to cast another glance at the destroyed Infested Command Center, disappointed that nothing was picked up on my HUD, "pack it up people, we're going home."

Servos and engines flared to life as what was left of my forces turned around and started marching back towards Alpha base.

The night would soon belong to the Rouges and I wasn't going to play hero.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four_

_Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000_

_Abilities: Rally Cry, Shredder Grenade, Detector_

_Health: 550 HP: 45 HP Recovery rate per minute_

_Armor: +5_

_Energy: 200/200: Recharge rate 50 points every 1 minute_

_Personal Shields: 150/150: Recharge rate 50 points per minute_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four to Level Five [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 107/150 Hand Grenade Kills, 400/400 Rifle Kills, 2,162/2,500 Confirmed Kills, 3/5 Rescued Allies, 5/6 Commander Research Points, 0/10 Boss Kills, 1/3 Commander Mission_

_… _

_Blue Force Terran Level Four to Level Five [ERROR] Incomplete_

_Requirements: 152/90 Depots, 171/150 SCVs, 984/400 Marines, 182/85 Firebats, 30/25 Medics, 58/50 Vultures, 15/20 Hellions, 26/10 Science Facility Upgrades, 55/40 Zerg Bio Samples, 55/40 Protoss Crystal Shards, 65/40 Terran Research Files, 3/4 Rescued Allies, 6/4 Barracks, 3/5 Command Centers, 3/4 Factory, 0/1 Sensor Tower, 0/1 Armory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Five_

_…_

_Blue Force Terran Resources_

_Minerals: 315,450_

_Gas: 178,000_

_…_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [16 WAR PIGS] at Blue Force Terran Level [FOUR]_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [8 VANDALS] at Blue Force Terran Level [FOUR]_

_Merc Compound now capable of supporting [8 DEVIL DOGS] at Blue Force Terran Level [FOUR]_

_…_

_Terran Commander Level Four_

_Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]_

_…_

Alpha base was already showing improvement, the Bunkers were about halfway finished along with a new defensive structure I was implementing.

Missile Turrets.

Costing the same as a Bunker with the same build time, these anti-air and detectors were the main staple for defense against flying targets and allows nearby units to detect any kind of Cloaked or Burrowed enemy unit moving within range of the Missile Turrets. Against ground targets they were defenseless, which was why I was having one built behind each Bunker to not only boost the protective anti-air bubble I was building around each base, but to make it that much harder for enemy units to target them without having to go through the Bunkers first.

All of my newest defenses would be finished before nightfall and that made me very happy due to the fact I had a sneaking suspicion that I would be needing such installations soon.

Alpha base concerned me the most, aside from the motely string of Bunkers spread out along the edge of the cliff and concentrated around the ramps leading up into the main area of Alpha, which was now getting kind of cramped with all of the buildings and troops wandering around, that and I was completely out of minerals and gas near Alpha. Most of the idle SCVs sitting around were divided up between Bravo and Delta before I went on a massive building spree in the small area when I had encountered Rouges in the Tutorial after placing a screen of five Bunkers and seven Missile Turrets along the edge of the cliff.

Having lost every single building and unit at Charlie base had been a massive loss of resources, that and I was going to have to wait for the replacement buildings to finish construction, which what was going on in the area I dubbed Alpha Staging Grounds.

Alpha Staging Grounds was big enough for two Command Centers, three Barracks and just barely two Factories to be built, the distance between some of the construction zones were wide enough for a single SCV to maneuver around it. Rather than build nothing but wall to wall Supply Depots until I ran out of room, I had decided to leave any kind of permeant expansion buildings to be built at the site of where I might have new bases and rather than try to remain in the area protecting a rather fragile building under construction for two days before said base would operational. Just like I had done when Bravo, Charlie and Delta were constructed, fly in the primary buildings, erect defenses within an hour and by then the SCVs would have gathered enough minerals and gas to pay off the cost of that base by then.

With that side project on schedule, I turned to the next project I was undertaking as I turned to look at the newest building currently under construction not far from my Science Facility.

At 500 minerals and 300 gas with an 18 hour build time required, the Armory could only be built once and I was pretty excited to get it in operation, a little feeling in the back of my head telling me that it would be important in the future. Considering that the Science Facility contained all of the upgrades geared towards buildings and ground troops, not counting the upgrades that required Research Points of course, no doubt the Armory would have goodies for my vehicles and hopefully aircraft.

_Commander, would you like to review the Sensor Tower building que as well?_

Oh yeah, that reminds me of the next super expensive and time consuming project of mine.

"Might as well," I sighed before turning around and heading towards my Command Center, "unless those things can pick up cable I still say they are a waste."

_Commander, the function of dedicated Sensor Towers is to improve communications, detection and accuracy of system wide scanners in the event of combat, a single Sensor Tower would boost efficiency one point seven percent_

"I know Adjutant, you haven't stopped reminding me since they could be built," I stopped near a Barracks and keyed my com unit, "let me know what they can really do."

_Sensor Towers, when linked into a larger network of expanding bases and established Sensor Towers, have the advanced capabilities of connecting to satellites in orbit for a variety of abilities for the Blue Force Terran Commander to implement in both combat and non-combatant operations_

"Such as?"

_Com Sweep is the ability to take a brief scan of any given area within range of a satellite in the event the Commander would wish to perform advanced recon or to locate otherwise undetectable enemies_

_M.U.L.E. Delivery allows micro fabricators within any satellite to build an advanced version of the SCV and deliver to any designated destination via orbital re-entry pod, increasing resource collection and build time by 50% for 1 hour_

_Orbital Supply [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time_

_Kinetic Delivery Strike [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time _

_Rapid Troop Deployment [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time_

_Satellite Laser Bombardment [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time _

_Nuclear Missile Drop [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time _

_That is all Commander, is there anything else?_

"Yeah, build one at each base for now and have one built when Charlie base has been reestablished," a new batch of Medics had just finished at the Barracks, "I'll be up in the Command Center in a few, have the others meet me there."

With that I could finally get a decent look at my Medics, up close and personal, had a feeling I would be seeing plenty of them in the near future if the last incident was any kind of indicator.

Medics were a slimmer and more smoother design of combat suit compared to Marines or Firebats, built for speed and strength in the event of moving wounded troops and rushing towards injured units they could heal. Painted a dull white with blue highlights, each Medic bore the typical Red Cross on each shoulder and chest plate to make them rather obvious. Upon the left arm was a modified combat shield that could protect the entire Medic from incoming attacks, though enough Impaler rounds, claws or plasma energy would wear it down and destroy it before the Medic itself would sustain damage. It was that I noticed each default Medic had servos designated to move any Marine or Firebat CMC armor, but anything bigger would be too heavy, so obviously I would have to upgrade them in the near future.

I mean yeah a Marauder was obviously bigger than regular Marines and Firebats, Reapers might be too heavy with that jet pack to fly up cliffs and stuff, but it says nothing about my Mercs and Allies.

Each Medic also came with 100 energy that had a heal ratio of 3 HP/1 energy and a recharge rate of 30 energy a minute, not bad, but I would need to implement enough Medics along with my ground troops in any kind of major fight, because once the Medics ran out of energy to heal my troops, then the massacre would begin. The way how Medics actually healed was rather interesting as well, on the arm opposite of the shield was this massive vial of glowing green liquid that turned out to be super advanced medical Jell-O that was pumped through the needle looking thing on the end of the vial. Once the Medic had jabbed someone with the massive syringe, the special emitter in the tip of the syringe would activate and force the medical Jell-O through while destabilizing it down to molecular form, effectively transmitting it through the wounded unit.

Which explained why Medics had energy, without it they would have to administer the medical Jell-O directly and with CMC armor and general mayhem going on when they would no doubt have to administer first aid, this method was obviously a lot more effective and efficient.

Watching some of my wounded troops that were being rotated out of the Bunkers getting healed also revealed another nifty feature about Medics, they could also repair segments of CMC armor through the use of pre-built Neosteel patches that would mold themselves over damaged areas of armor and form into pieces of the actual suit, something about Medics having specialized micro processers in their gauntlets or something that rendered the metal into the appropriate shape.

Medics were awesome.

It was then I got an up close and personal view of my other addition, Hellions, as one of them drove out of a nearby Factory and headed towards the other Hellions before I flagged it down as it parked itself in front of me.

Think Warthog from Halo, though armor plating covered the driver and passenger portion of the vehicle and instead of a huge Gatling gun hanging off the back, instead imagine an enclosed turret with a long nozzle sticking out of the top. Sitting on a squat four wheeled frame, Hellions had that rugged all terrain appeal and an engine that sounded like an effing jet taking off, much to my dismay I couldn't enter the vehicle or have the invisible driver get out either, yet another vehicle I wasn't allowed to drive.

The Hellion let out a short burst from the flamethrower before taking off, I'd guess it had twice the effective range of a Firebat, might be useful later on.

After stepping into the Suit Bay I noticed a battered looking Vulture parked across the room, no sign of Lt. Hismallen anywhere as I hurriedly got out of my suit and headed towards the elevator.

_Commander, all current Allies accounted for, what are your orders_

Looking around the main holo-table revealed Sgt Casari standing at ease facing the door, Cpl Hanov either savoring the taste or smoking his cigar off to the side and Lt. Hismallen in the flesh slouched against the nearby console.

He looked good for a guy who had nearly been on the verge of life and death, granted his jumpsuit was soiled with dried blood and some kind of liquid coolant from his bike, though I could be imagining things, but his did look a little pale and ragged.

"Alright gang," I felt suddenly tired all of a sudden, no doubt the adrenaline wearing off finally, "we managed to survive the worst thrown at us so far."

I brought up the stats detailing our losses from said Anarchy Event, "However we lost an entire base and nearly lost Alpha, granted we pulled through at the end, but we need to improve our defenses and strategy in the event something like that happens again."

_Commander, it should come to your attention that Blue Force Terran had gone offline when your vitals flat lined some kind ago_

"What!" I turned to look over at Adjutant's avatar, the real her being the electronics and computers embedded within the Command Center.

"You were killed by the Centurion exploding sir," Sgt Casari stepped forward, "for nearly fifteen minutes you were dead, until the healing nanites within your body kicked in and revived you."

_Healing what again?_ "Adjutant, explain."

_Upon the failure of your biological functions, connection to the servers and primary mainframe went offline resulting in the eventual reactivation of the Commander's Restoration and Repair Nanites to restore your biological functions and command signal_

A grainy video appeared on the big screen, showing a different view of the fight from earlier, fast forwarding through the entrance of the three Rouge Terran Night Bosses and subsequent ass kicking before the video slowed down after the Centurion exploded.

I got the treat of watching myself get thrown backwards ass over teakettle and not moving, in fact nothing moved on the screen. The gunfire in the background had stopped, tracers and flames were no longer lighting up the night and nearly every single unit had frozen.

Code was flowing across the screen, brief flashes from other angles and views from other bases revealed the same thing, all of my forces had ceased to do anything, shoot, move or even defend themselves as the Rouges continued to attack. Not like they had earlier, no it was more like they were focused on taking out whatever had attacked them or something else that moved before the freeze. In fact after the initial destruction of the Bunkers and the units garrisoned within them, it was like the Rouges had forgotten my forces, recordings from Charlie base actually showed a three way brawl going on within my base that spilled over and leveled everything after the Infestor Lord showed up, video from Charlie base cut off from then on.

The view centered back on me laying on the ground and it was then I noticed something, three things were moving on screen, Sgt Casari, Cpl Hanov and Lt. Hismallen.

_With the loss of the command signal, Charlie Base quickly fell and most of the defensive installations at Alpha Base were destroyed before the Commander's Restoration and Repair Nanites finished reviving you and thus restoring full operation of Blue Force Terran_

That explained the four inch long gash in my chest plate I hadn't noticed until a Medic had walked up to me and demonstrated the repair ability they had.

I had died for crying out loud.

"I went down taking out approaching Rouges boss," Lt. Hismallen shrugged, "kept them away from you long enough for the nanite things to work and for you to get back up."

A video courtesy of Adjutant showed just that, a one-two combo from a couple Zerglings and a Protoss Zealot getting the last hit in resulted in Lt. Hismallen suddenly collapsing behind the controls of his Vulture seconds before a wave of fire killed off the survivors swarming towards him, Cpl Hanov shown doing what he did best for a few minutes before I could see myself start twitching.

It was also then I noticed Sgt Casari reaching down and yanking a shard of twisted metal out of my chest, the phantom pain enough to make me wince before everything started up again.

As in everything went back to normal and that was when I woke up.

"How?" that question was directed towards Adjutant before I snapped my head back around towards Lt. Hismallen.

"You died, didn't you?" Seeing the man nod had me reaching for a chair.

_Each Ally contains the same Healing and Restoration Nanites as you do Commander, however theirs are not fully developed to the extent of yours, merely able to heal and restore the body until proper medical attention can be given_

Well, this was all a bit much to take in all of a sudden, but I decided to take care of that later.

Much later.

"We now have a real game changer people, Medics and they are effective," Adjutant bringing up an entire roster of all Blue Force Terran units, "we were operating at nearly seventy percent and now that issue has been taken care of."

A real time video showed a single Medic healing a group of injured Marines and a Firebat that had come out of a Bunker, in less than two minutes all of the wounded were back at full health and stepping back inside the nearby Bunker, of course it may not have sounded like much, but the time and resources it would have taken to replace those units was shown next to the video, making Medics very effective.

"For every four infantry units there will be one Medic, giving enough of a ratio to be effective in short term engagements and brutal slugfests we're going to be dealing with in the future with all of the Night Bosses, Rouge forces, Commander missions and of course Anarchy Events." I swiped the screen in front of me until another window appeared, this one of the latest addition to Blue Force Terran.

"As for now, all Hellions will be operating alongside Vultures for fast moving close range support, integrating them with infantry will only rob them of their greatest asset, speed." A 3D projection of a Hellion was shown, if the data next to it was correct, that meant Hellions were just as fast, if not slightly faster than Vultures.

"Against Zerg ground units they'll roast anything that moves boss," Cpl Hanov stepped forward as the cigar in his mouth twitched side to side, "problem is they got no defense against fliers or ranged units, those flamethrowers are a lot more powerful than what me and my boys got though."

"What about Protoss?" I had a feeling the answer wasn't going to be pretty.

Cpl Hanov shrugged, "As long as they stay moving and out of range of any plasma strikes I don't see there being much problem, but again if there are any kind of fliers whatsoever then they are history."

"Hit and run tactics," Lt. Hismallen spoke up as he stood upright and walked closer, "they ride with us and get up close and personal while we hit from afar with heavier ordnance, sounds simple enough."

"They should avoid Rouge Terran forces," Sgt. Casari reached over and highlighted the projection so it stopped rotating and enlarged, "they have no armor plating to speak of that could stop actual spikes or shrapnel, but as long as they stay on the move they should be harder to hit."

"So we agree that Hellions are sticking with Vultures as vehicle support?" Nods went around the table as I brought up another screen.

It showed a projection of a Sensor Tower, real time video showed three were under construction, one here at Alpha and another at Bravo and Delta respectively.

"Adjutant seems pretty hard up for these things, guess we'll find out how effective they might actually be once they finish," the only available options were displayed, Com Sweep and M.U.L.E Delivery, better than nothing I guess, "aside from that we need to wait."

"Grab some chow and hit the rack for at least an hour, that's an order, we'll suit up and get ready for the night rush then." I watched as everyone filed out and left me alone.

During that time I checked the Science Facility console to see what, if any, upgrades were available at this time and I wasn't disappointed.

The second tier of upgrades for armor, movement, weapon damage, range and ammo capacity for ground troops were available at double the cost and time for upgrading, but each one of them was selected and placed in the researching que. It would take time for those upgrades to finish researching and then it would take just as long if not longer for them to be implemented into each one of my troops, but that would have to wait for later as I did some more exploring in the Science Facility menu.

Eureka.

_Medic Auxiliary Power Cores Tier 1: Extensively for Medics in mind, this particular upgrade boosts contained energy in preexisting power cells by 50% with a 10% faster recharge rate. At the cost of 500 minerals, 250 gas and 5 hours, this upgrade is guaranteed to improve the overall effectiveness of Medics in combat. _

Nice, things were looking up if I could apply upgrades directly to my Medics right after unlocking them, that and I couldn't help but notice that this was a tier one upgrade, methinks I could upgrade that particular feature several times after leveling up.

At least I think I can.

Regardless, there weren't any more available research upgrades in that portion of the menu and as much as I wanted to check out the Research Point upgrades and see what was available, food and sleep sounded much more promising and quicker to make me feel better as I powered down the terminal and went in search of food.

That and some shut eye sounded heavenly.


End file.
